CONCERNING 

LAFCADIO 

HEARN 


GEORGE  M.  GOULD 


LAFCADIO    HEAKN 
From    a    photograph    by    GuteJcunst    in 


CONG  ERNING 
LAFCADIO    HEARN 


BY» 

GEORGE  M.  GOULD,  M.  D 


WITH  A  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BY 

LAURA  STEDMAN 


PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Wv.  Ubray,  UC  Santa  One  1994 


Copyright,  1908,  by 

GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  &  COMPANY 
Published  May,  1908 


PREFACE 

THERE  are  as  many  possible  biographies  of  a  man 
as  there  are  possible  biographers — and  one  more !  Of 
Lafcadio  Hearn  there  has  been,  and  there  will  be,  no 
excuse  for  any  biography  whatever.  A  properly 
edited  volume  of  his  letters,  and,  perhaps,  a  critical 
estimate  of  the  methods  and  development  of  his  im- 
aginative power  and  literary  character  are,  and  still 
remain,  most  desirable.  That  some  competent  hand 
may  yet  be  found  to  undertake  this  task  is  still  hoped 
by  those  who  recognize  the  value  of  the  man's  best 
work.  To  furnish  material  and  help  toward  this  end 
is  my  object  in  collecting  the  following  pages.  The 
life  of  a  literary  man  interests  and  is  of  value  to  the 
world  because  of  the  literature  he  has  created.  With- 
out a  bibliography,  without  even  mention  of  the 
works  he  wrote,  his  biography  would  be  useless.  To 
correct  many  untrue  and  misleading  statements  and 
inferences  of  a  serious  nature  that  have  been  pub- 
lished concerning  him  and  his  life,  should  it  ever  be 
undertaken,  will  prove  a  labor  so  difficult  and  thank- 
less that  it  will  scarcely  be  entered  upon  by  one  who 
would  do  it  rightly.  That  it  will  not  be  hazarded 
comes,  as  I  have  said,  from  the  fact  that  it  is  not 
needed,  because  neither  Hearn  himself,  nor  his  real 
friends,  nor  again,  a  discriminating  literary  sense, 

3 


6  Preface 

ever  known.  He  was  a  perfect  chameleon;  he  took 
for  the  time  the  color  of  his  surroundings.  He  was 
always  the  mirror  of  the  friend  of  the  instant,  or, 
if  no  friend  was  there,  of  the  dream  of  that  instant. 
The  next  minute  he  was  another  being,  acted  upon 
by  the  new  circumstance,  reflecting  the  new  friend, 
or  redreaming  the  old  and  new-found  dream.  They 
who  blame  him  too  sharply  for  his  disloyalty  and 
ingratitude  to  old  friends  do  not  understand  him 
psychologically.  There  was  nothing  behind  the  physi- 
cal and  neurologic  machine  to  be  loyal  or  disloyal. 
He  had  no  mind,  or  character,  to  be  possessed  of 
loyalty  or  disloyalty.  For  the  most  part,  he  simply 
dropped  his  friends,  and  rarely  spoke  ill  of  them  or 
of  his  enemies.  There  was  nothing  whatever  in  him, 
except  perhaps  for  the  short  time  when  he  said  his 
friend  had  given  him  a  soul,  to  take  the  cast  and 
function  of  loyalty  or  disloyalty,  gratitude  or  ingrati- 
tude. One  does  not  ask  originality  or  even  great  con- 
sistency of  an  echo,  and,  of  all  men  that  have  ever 
lived,  Hearn,  mentally  and  spiritually,  was  most  per- 
fectly an  echo.  The  sole  quality,  the  only  original- 
ity, he  brought  to  the  fact,  or  to  the  echo,  was  color 
— a  peculiar  derivation  of  a  maimed  sense.  He  cre- 
ated or  invented  nothing;  his  stories  were  always  told 
him  by  others ;  at  first  they  were  gruesome  tales  even 
to  horror  and  disgust.  He  learned  by  practice  to 
choose  lovelier  stories,  ones  always  distant,  some- 


Preface  7 

times  infinitely  distant,  and  he  learned  to  retell  or 
echo  them  with  more  artistic  skill  and  even  a  match- 
less grace.  His  merit,  almost  his  sole  merit,  and  his 
unique  skill  lay  in  the  strange  faculty  of  coloring 
the  echo  with  the  hues  and  tints  of  heavenly  rain- 
bows and  unearthly  sunsets,  all  gleaming  with  a 
ghostly  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  shore.  So 
that,  fused  as  he  was  with  his  work,  he  himself  be- 
came that  impossible  thing,  a  chromatic  voice,  a 
multicolored  echo. 

We  must,  therefore,  accept  the  facts  as  we  find 
them,  the  young  man  as  we  find  him,  uneducated, 
friendless,  without  formed  character,  with  a  lot  of 
heathenish  and  unrestrained  appetites,  crippled  as 
to  the  most  important  of  the  senses,  poverty-stricken, 
improvident,  of  peculiar  and  unprepossessing  appear- 
ance and  manners,  flung  into  an  alien  world  in  many 
ways  more  morbid  than  himself.  That  he  lived  at 
all  is  almost  astonishing,  and  that  he  writhed  out, 
how  he  did  it,  and  the  means  whereby  he  finally  pre- 
sented to  the  best  artistic  and  literary  intellects  of 
the  world  prized  values  and  enjoyments,  is  indeed 
worthy  of  some  attention  and  study. 

From  letters  written  to  me  just  prior  to  his  death 
by  that  veteran  and  discriminating  critic,  Mr. 
Edmund  C.  Stedman,  I  quote  a  few  sentences  to 
show  that  the  appreciation  of  He^rn  has  by  no  means 
reached  its  full  measure: 


8  Preface 

"I  passed  an  evening  with  your  Hearn  manu- 
script and  the  supplementary  matter  by  my  grand- 
daughter, and  found  them  both  well  done  and  of 
deep  interest.  Some  of  your  passages  are  beautifully 
written  and  make  me  think  that  if  you  will  give  us 
more  of  the  style  which  is  so  plainly  at  your  com- 
mand, you  will  gain,  etc.  .  .  .  The  publishers 
do  not  understand,  as  I  do,  that  Hearn  will  in  time 
be  as  much  of  a  romantic  personality  and  tradition 
as  Poe  now  is.  I  strongly  urged  one  publisher  to 
buy  those  copyrights  owned  by  three  other  firms  on 
any  terms  and  in  the  end  bring  out  a  definitive 
edition  of  his  complete  works." 

As  to  Miss  Stedman's  workmanlike  bibliography,  it 
should  be  said  that  the  rule  which  has  been  followed 
in  excluding  less  valuable  reviews  and  notices,  was 
based  upon  the  effort  to  include  doubtful  ones  only 
when  of  exceptional  value,  by  a  personal  friend  of 
Hearn,  etc.  Files  of  ordinary  newspapers  are  not 
preserved  even  in  local  libraries,  and,  therefore, 
references  to  them  have  been  excluded  except  under 
peculiar  circumstances  of  authorship,  opinions 
stated,  etc. 

For  their  kind  permission  to  make  extracts  from 
Hearn's  published  works,  grateful  acknowledgments 
are  due  Messrs.  Little,  Brown  and  Company,  Hough- 
ton,  Miiflin  and  Company,  Harper  and  Brothers,  and 
The  Macmillan  Company. 


Preface  9 

Should  this  volume  bring  in  more  money  than  the 
necessary  expenses  of  compiling  it,  the  excess  will 
be  sent  to  Mrs.  Hearn  through  the  Japanese  Consul, 
or  in  some  other  way. 

GEORGE  M.GOULD. 
PHILADELPHIA,  February,  1908. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     HEREDITY  AND  THE  EARLY  LIFE 13 

II     IN  PERSON 20 

III  THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  GRUESOME 27 

IV  THE  NEW  ORLEANS  TIME 54 

Y     AT  MARTINIQUE 87 

VI     "GETTING  A  SOUL" 97 

VII     "!N  GHOSTLY  JAPAN" 116 

VIII     As  A  POET 133 

IX     THE  POET  OF  MYOPIA 145 

X     HEARN'S  STYLE 166 

XI     SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 189 

XII     APPRECIATIONS  AND  EPITOMES 194 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.  ,  .336 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

LAFCADIO     HEARN,     FROM     A   .PHOTOGRAPH     BY 

GUTEKUNST  IN  1889 Frontispiece 

REDUCED    FIRST    PAGE    OF    THE    FIRST    ISSUE    OF 

"YE  GIGLAMPZ" Facing  page     36 

LAFCADIO  HEARN,  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN 

DURING  THE  NEW  ORLEANS  PERIOD 64 

LAFCADIO  HEARN,  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN 

AT  MARTINIQUE,  AUGUST  24,  1888 .  .  .  92 

HANDWRITING  OF  HEARN  IN  1889 100 

HEARN  AT  ABOUT  THE  AGE  OF  EIGHT,  FROM  A 

PHOTOGRAPH .  148 

LAFCADIO   HEARN,   FROM  A   PHOTOGRAPH   BY 

GUTEKUNST  IN  1889  .  .  186 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

LAFCADIO     HEARN,     FROM     A  .  PHOTOGRAPH     BY 

GUTEKUNST  IN  1889 Frontispiece 

REDUCED    FIRST    PAGE    OF    THE    FIRST    ISSUE    OF 

"YE  GIGLAMPZ" Facing  page     36 

LAFCADIO  HEARN,  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN 

DURING  THE  NEW  ORLEANS  PERIOD .  .  64 

LAFCADIO  HEARN,  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN 

AT  MARTINIQUE,  AUGUST  24,  1888 .  .  .  92 

HANDWRITING  OF  HEARN  IN  1889 100 

HEARN  AT  ABOUT  THE  AGE  OF  EIGHT,  FROM  A 

PHOTOGRAPH .  148 

LAFCADIO   HEARN,   FROM  A   PHOTOGRAPH   BY 

GUTEKUNST  IN  1889.  .  ,  .186 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

CHAPTER  I 

HEREDITY   AND   THE   EARLY   LIFE 

MANY  conflicting  accounts  have  been  given  con- 
cerning Hearn's  parents  and  childhood.  From  his 
own  statements  made  in  1889,  the  notes  of  which, 
taken  down  at  the  moment,  are  before  me,  he  was 
born  on  June  27,  1850,  at  Leucadia,  in  Santa  Maura, 
one  of  the  Ionian  Islands.  His  father,  he  said,  was 
an  Irishman,  Charles  Bush  Hearn,  Surgeon-Major 
in  the  76th  English  Infantry  Regiment,  which  had 
been  stationed  at  Madras,  Calcutta.  The  regiment 
was  later  merged  into  the  22d  West  Riding  Bat- 
talion. His  mother  was  a  Greek  from  Cerigo,  an- 
other of  the  Ionian  Isles ;  her  name  he  had  forgotten. 
He  spoke  of  his  father  and  mother  as  having  been 
married,  and  of  a  subsequent  divorce,  about  1857  or 
1858.  Allusion  was  made  to  a  younger  brother, 
named  Daniel,  who  was  brought  up  by  an  artist,  a 
painter,  Richard  Hearn,  a  brother  of  Charles  Bush 
Hearn,  who  lived  in  Paris.1  Hearn  thought  this 

*In  The  Bookbuyer,  May,  1896,  Hearn's  friend,  Mr.  J.  S. 
Tunison,  speaks  of  the  existence  of  a  brother,  "a  busy  farmer 
in  Northwestern  Ohio." 

13 


14  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

brother  was  educated  as  a  civil  engineer.  After  the 
divorce  his  mother  remarried,  her  second  husband 
being  a  lawyer,  a  Greek,  name  unknown,  and  living 
at  Smyrna,  Asia  Minor.  Lafcadio's  father  also  re- 
married, taking  his  wife  to  India.  Three  daughters 
were  said  to  have  been  born  there.  Lafcadio  was 
put  under  the  care  of  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Sarah  Brenane, 
of  Dublin,  No.  73  Upper  Leeson  Street.  She  was 
a  widow  without  children.  In  a  letter  to  me,  written 
prior  to  1889,  Hearn  says:  "As  for  me,  I  have  a 
good  deal  in  me  not  to  thank  my  ancestors  for;  and  it 
is  a  pleasure  that  I  cannot,  even  if  I  would,  trace 
myself  two  generations  back,  not  even  one  genera- 
tion on  my  mother's  side.  Half  these  Greeks  are 
mixed  with  Turks  and  Arabs — don't  know  how  much 
of  an  Oriental  mixture  I  have,  or  may  have."  And 
again,  "I  do  not  know  anything  about  my  mother, 
whether  alive  or  dead.  My  father  died  on  his  return 
from  India.  There  was  a  queer  romance  in  the 
history  of  my  mother's  marriage."  He  told  me 
later  that  this  romance  was  said  to  have  been  that 
Surgeon-Major  Hearn  was  once  set  upon  by  the 
brothers  of  the  young  Greek  woman  to  whom  he  was 
paying  attention,  and  that  he  was  left  supposedly 
dead,  with  about  a  score  of  dagger-made  wounds  in 
his  body. 

In  the  Dayton,  Ohio,  Journal,  of  December  25, 
1906,   Mr.    Tunison   speaks    authoritatively    of   the 


Heredity  and  the  Early  Life  15 

discrepant  accounts  given  by  many  writers,  and  by 
Hearn  himself,  concerning  his  parents,  birth  and 
early  years.  "Hearn  himself  had  misgivings,  and 
sometimes  associated  his  baptismal  name  with  the 
not  uncommon  Spanish  name,  Leocadie."  The  boy, 
of  course,  could  only  repeat  what  he  had  been  told 
by  his  relatives  or  friends.  Physiognomy  can  help 
little  perhaps,  but  here  its  testimony  is  assuredly  not 
confirmatory  of  the  more  common  story.  Any  at- 
tempt to  secure  definite  information  in  Ireland 
would  scarcely  be  successful.  One  possibility  re- 
mained: There  is  still  living  an  Irish  gentleman 
to  whom  Lafcadio  was  sent  from  Ireland,  and  in 
whose  care,  at  least  to  a  limited  extent,  the  boy  was 
placed.  I  have  not  the  right  to  mention  his  name. 
He  was  living  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  1870,  and 
through  his  brother-in-law  in  Ireland,  Lafcadio  was, 
as  it  were,  consigned  to  my  informant.  The  subject 
is  an  unpleasant  one  to  him,  and  he  answered  my 
questions  with  reluctance.  He  did  not  like  the  boy 
and  did  not  feel  that  he  had  any  obligation  toward 
him;  in  fact,  he  did  not  feel  that  he  was  in  any  way 
responsible  for  his  care.  Besides,  he  had  heavy 
duties  toward  his  own  children  that  absorbed  all  his 
energies.  "I  never  had  a  letter  from  him.  He 
came  to  the  house  three  times.  Mrs.  Brenane  sent 
me  money,  which  I  gave  to  him  to  pay  his  bills  with. 
When  he  got  work,  he  never  came  near  me  again." 


16  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

He  was  not  sure  that  Mrs  Brenane  was,  in  truth, 
Hearn's  aunt,  and  upon  being  pressed,  answered  re- 
peatedly, "I  know  nothing,  nobody  knows  anything 
true  of  Hearn' s  life.  He  may  have  been  related  to 
my  wife's  family,  but  I  never  knew."  Asked  why 
the  lad  was  "shipped"  to  him,  he  replied,  "I  do  not 
know."  Inquiries  concerning  the  boy's  schooling 
brought  no  more  than,  "I  only  know  that  he  could 
never  stay  long  in  one  school."  "His  father  was 
Irish,  was  he  not?"  "Yes."  "And  his  mother  was 
Greek?"  "O  yes,  I  suppose  so,"  but  with  an  in- 
definite inflection. 

The  mystery,  therefore,  of  Hearn's  parentage  and 
boyhood  years  is  probably  not  to  be  cleared  up.  He 
was,  perhaps,  a  "bad  boy,"  and  expelled  from  several 
schools;  his  lifelong  hatred  and  fear  of  Catholics 
and  Jesuits  doubtless  dates  from  these  youthful  and 
irrational  experiences;  but  it  is  useless  to  inquire 
whether  or  not  they  were  in  any  sense  justifiable. 
A  little  reflected  light  is  thrown  upon  this  period  by 
an  apocryphal  anecdote  in  a  letter  to  me,  written 
while  Hearn  was  at  my  house,  and  which  Miss  Bis- 
land  in  her  "Life  and  Letters"  kindly  failed  to  put  in 
its  proper  place,1  as  well  as  omitted  to  say  whence 
she  obtained  it: 

This  again  reminds  me  of  something.  When  I  was  a 
boy,  I  had  to  go  to  confession,  and  my  confessions  were 

Wol.  I,  pp.  459-460,  just  prior  to  the  last  paragraph. 


Heredity  and  the  Early  Life  17 

honest  ones.  One  day  I  told  the  ghostly  father  that  I  had 
been  guilty  of  desiring  that  the  devil  would  come  to  me 
in  the  shape  of  the  beautiful  woman  in  which  he  came 
to  the  Anchorites  in  the  desert,  and  that  I  thought  that 
I  would  yield  to  such  temptations.  He  was  a  grim  man 
who  rarely  showed  emotion,  my  •  confessor,  but  on  that 
occasion  he  actually  rose  to  his  feet  in  anger. 

' l  Let  me  warn  you ! "  he  cried,  ' '  let  me  warn  you !  Of 
all  things  never  wish  that !  You  might  be  more  sorry  for 
it  than  you  can  possibly  believe ! ' ' 

His  'earnestness  filled  me  with  fearful  joy; — for  1 
thought  the  temptation  might  actually  be  realized — so 
serious  he  looked  .  .  .  but  the  pretty  succubi  all  con- 
tinued to  remain  in  hell. 

The  necessary  inference,  therefore,  is  that  the  lad 
was  an  unwelcome  charge  upon  those  Irish  relations 
or  friends  of  his  father,  in  whose  care  he  was  placed. 
It  is  said  that  he  always  spoke  with  bitterness  of  his 
father,  and  with  love  of  his  mother.  Beyond  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  money  allotted  (by  his  father?)  for 
his  support,  neither  parent  was  evidently  concerned 
about  his  upbringing  and  welfare,  and  all  who  should 
have  been  interested  in  those  things  made  haste  to 
rid  themselves  of  the  obligations.  If  the  stories  of 
his  boyish  "badness"  were  true,  the  lad  could  not  be 
blamed  for  putting  into  practice  his  inherited  in- 
stincts, so  that  the  pathos  of  his  early  misfortunes 
only  increases  our  sympathy  for  the  youth  and  his 
tragedies.  On  another  page  and  for  another  purpose 
I  reproduce  a  photograph  of  Lafcadio  and  his  aunt, 


18  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Mrs.  Justin,  or  Sarah  Brenane.  The  lad  must  have 
been  at  the  time  about  eight  years  of  age.  The 
"consignment"  of  the  nineteen-year  old  youth  to 
the  distant  relative  of  the  family,  who  was  then 
living  in  Cincinnati,  explains  the  reason  why,  landing 
in  New  York,  he  finally  went  to  Cincinnati.  How 
long  he  lived  in  New  York  City  and  any  details  of 
his  life  there  before  he  went  West,  may  be  held  as 
beyond  investigation.  Mr.  Tunison  incidentally 
speaks  of  him  during  this  time  as  "sleeping  in  dry- 
goods  boxes  on  the  street,  etc.,"  and  I  have  heard 
that  he  acted  as  a  restaurant  waiter.  There  have 
been  published  stories  of  a  period  of  want  and  suffer- 
ing endured  in  London  before  the  emigration  to 
New  York  City.  Others  concerning  great  scholar- 
ship and  the  intimate  knowledge  of  several  languages, 
especially  French,  are  surely  not  true.  Even  in 
1889,  after  the  New  Orleans  and  Martinique 
periods,  Hearn  could  not  speak  French  with  ease  or 
correctness.  In  Cincinnati  he  secured  the  help  of  a 
French  scholar  in  translating  Gautier's  "Emaux  et 
Camees."  His  want  of  knowledge  of  the  Latin 
language  is  deplored  in  his  letters,  and,  to  the  last, 
after  a  dozen  or  more  years  in  Japan,  his  inability 
to  read  a  Japanese  newspaper  or  speak  the  language 
was  a  source  of  regret  to  himself,  of  errors  too 
numerous  to  mention,  and  of  grievous  limitations  in 
his  work  as  an  interpreter.  In  the  one  field  of 


Heredity  and  the  Early  Life  19 

which  his  taste,  aptitude  and  function  dictated  a 
wide  and  stimulating  acquaintance,  folk-lore,  he  was 
lamentably  wanting.  It  might  seem  unfitting  to 
allude  to  this  were  it  not  well  to  be  discriminating  in 
all  cases,  and  had  not  Hearn  sought  to  reach  au- 
thoritativeness  in  a  department  wherein  he  had  not 
gathered  the  fundamental  data. 


CHAPTER  II 

IN     PEKSON 

WHEN,  in  1889,  Hearn  appeared  in  my  reception 
room,  although  I  had  not  seen  any  photograph  of 
him,  and  had  not  even  known  of  his  coming,  I  at 
once  said,  "You  are  Lafcadio?"  The  poor  exotic  was 
so  sadly  out  of  place,  so  wondering,  so  suffering  and 
shy,  that  I  am  sure  he  would  have  run  out  of  the 
house  if  I  had  not  at  once  shown  him  an  overflowing 
kindness,  or  if  a  tone  of  voice  had  betrayed  any 
curiosity  or  doubt.  It  was  at  once  agreed  that  he 
should  stay  with  me  for  awhile,  and  there  was  no 
delay  in  providing  him  with  a  seat  at  my  table  and 
a  room  where  he  could  be  at  his  work  of  proof-cor- 
recting. His  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West 
Indies"  was  then  going  through  the  press,  and  an 
incident  connected  with  the  proof-reading  illustrates 
how  impossible  it  was  for  him,  except  when  necessity 
drove,  to  meet  any  person  not  already  known.  He 
wished  to  give  his  reader  the  tune  of  the  songs 
printed  on  pages  426-431,  but  he  knew  nothing  of 
music.  I  arranged  with  a  lady  to  repeat  the  airs  on 
her  piano  as  he  should  whistle  them,  and  then  to 
write  them  on  the  music  staff.  When  the  fatal 
evening  arrived,  Hearn  and  I  went  to  the  lady's 
house,  but  as  we  proceeded  his  part  in  our  chatting 


In  Person  21 


lapsed  into  silence,  and  he  lagged  behind.  Although 
he  finally  dragged  himself  to  the  foot  of  the  door- 
step, after  I  had  rung  the  bell,  his  courage  failed, 
and  before  the  door  was  opened  I  saw  him  running 
as  if  for  life,  half  a  square  away! 

Even  before  this  adventure  I  had  learned  that  it 
was  useless  to  try  to  get  him  to  lunch  or  dinner  if 
any  stranger  were  present.  I  think  he  always  list- 
ened to  detect  the  possible  presence  of  a  stranger 
before  entering  the  dining-room,  and  he  would  cer- 
tainly have  starved  rather  than  submit  to  such  an 
ordeal.  It  may  be  readily  imagined  that  my  attempt 
to  secure  his  services  as  a  lecturer  before  a  local 
literary  society  was  a  ludicrous  failure.  He  would 
have  preferred  hanging. 

I  allude  to  this  attitude  of  his  mind  from  no  idle 
or  curious  reason,  but  because  it  arose  from  logical 
and  necessary  reasons.  When,  later,  he  was  in 
Japan,  I  was  once  importuned,  and  should  not  have 
yielded,  to  give  a  friend,  who  was  about  to  visit 
Tokyo,  a  note  of  introduction.  As  I  warned  my 
friend  Hearn  refused  to  see  visitors. 

That  his  extreme  shyness  depended  upon  his  being 
unknown,  and  that  it  was  united  to  a  lack  of  humor, 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that,  when  he  came 
from  Martinique,  he  wore  clothing  which  inevitably 
made  the  passers-by  turn  and  look  and  smila  Long 
and  repeated  endeavors  were  necessary  before  I 


22  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

could  get  his  consent  to  lay  aside  the  outrageous 
tropical  hat  for  one  that  would  not  attract  attention. 
How  little  he  recked  of  this  appears  from  the  tale  I 
heard  that  a  lot  of  street  gamins  in  Philadelphia 
formed  a  queue,  the  leader  holding  by  Hearn's  coat- 
tails,  and,  as  they  marched,  all  kept  step  and  sang 
in  time,  "Where,  where,  where  did  you  get  that  hat  ?" 

At  once,  upon  first  meeting  Hearn,  I  instinctively 
recognized  that  upon  my  part  the  slightest  sign  of 
a  desire  or  attempt  to  study  him,  to  look  upon  him 
as  an  object  of  literary  or  "natural"  history,  would 
immediately  put  an  end  to  our  relations.  Indeed, 
it  never  at  that  time  entered  my  mind  to  think  thus 
of  him,  and  only  since  collections  of  his  letters  and 
biographies  are  threatened  has  it  occurred  to  me  to 
think  over  our  days  and  months  together,  and  to 
help,  so  far  as  advisable,  toward  a  true  understand- 
ing of  the  man  and  his  art. 

In  1889  Lafcadio  was  5  feet  3  inches  tall,  weighed 
137  pounds,  and  had  a  chest  girth  of  36f  inches. 

The  summer  of  1889  made  noteworthy  changes  in 
Hearn's  character.  I  suspect  it  was  his  first  experi- 
ence in  anything  that  might  be  called  home-life.  To 
his  beloved  pays  des  revenants,  Martinique,  his  mind 
constantly  reverted,  with  an  Ahnung  that  he  should 
never  see  it  again.  There  are  truth  and  pathos 
and  keen  self-knowledge,  frankly  expressed  in  the 
letters  he  would  write  me  in  the  next  room,  in>. 


In  Person  23 


mediately  after  we  had  chatted  long  together,  and 
when  he  felt  that  the  pen  could  better  express  what 
he  shyly  shrank  from  speaking: 

Ah!  to  have  a  profession  is  to  be  rich,  to  have  inter- 
national current-money,  a  gold  Jhat  is  cosmopolitan,  passes 
everywhere.  Then  I  think  I  would  never  settle  down  in 
any  place ;  would  visit  all,  wander  about  as  long  as  I 
could.  There  is  such  a  delightful  pleasantness  about  the 
first  relations  with  people  in  strange  places — before  you 
have  made  any  rival,  excited  any  ill  wills,  incurred  any- 
body's displeasure.  Stay  long  enough  in  any  one  place 
and  the  illusion  is  over;  you  have  to  sift  this  society 
through  the  meshes  of  your  nerves,  and  find  perhaps  one 
good  friendship  too  large  to  pass  through. 

It  is  a  very  beautiful  world;  the  ugliness  of  some  hu- 
manity only  exists  as  the  shadowing  that  outlines  the 
view ;  the  nobility  of  man  and  the  goodness  of  woman  can 
only  be  felt  by  those  who  know  the  possibilities  of  degra- 
dation and  corruption.  Philosophically  I  am  simply  a 
follower  of  Spencer,  whose  mind  gives  me  the  greatest 
conception  of  Divinity  I  can  yet  expand  to  receive.  The 
faultiness  is  not  with  the  world,  but  with  myself.  I  in- 
herit certain  susceptibilities,  weaknesses,  sensitivenesses, 
which  render  it  impossible  to  adapt  myself  to  the  ordi- 
nary milieu;  I  have  to  make  one  of  my  own  wherever  I 
go,  and  never  mingle  with  that  already  made.  True,  I 
love  much  knowledge,  but  I  escape  pains  which,  in  spite 
of  all  your  own  knowledge,  you  could  wholly  comprehend, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  you  can  mingle  with  men. 

I  am  really  quite  lonesome  for  you,  and  am  reflecting  how 
much  more  lonesome  I  shall  be  in  some  outrageous  equa- 
torial country  where  I  shall  not  see  you  any  more; — also 


24  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


it  seems  to  me  perfectly  and  inexplainably  atrocious  to 

know  that  some  day  or  other  there  will  be  no  Gooley  at 

St.  That  I  should  cease  to  make  a  shadow  some  day  seems 
quite  natural,  because  Kearney  boy  is  only  a  bubble  any- 
how ("The  earth  hath  bubbles")? — Dut  y°u>  hating  mys- 
teries and  seeing  and  feeling  and  knowing  everything, — 
you  have  no  right  ever  to  die  at  all.  And  I  can't  help 
doubting  whether  you  will.  You  have  almost  made  me 
believe  what  you  do  not  believe  yourself:  that  there  are 
souls.  I  haven 't  any,  I  know ;  but  I  think  you  have, — some- 
thing electrical  and  luminous  inside  you  that  will  walk 
about  and  see  things  always.  Are  you  really — what  I  see 
of  you — only  an  Envelope  of  something  subtler  and  per- 
petual? Because  if  you  are,  I  might  want  you  to  pass 
down  some  day  southward, — over  the  l)lue  zone  and  the 
volcanic  peaks  like  a  little  wind, — and  flutter  through 
the  palm-plumes  under  the  all-putrefying  sun, — and  reach 
down  through  old  roots  to  the  bones  of  me,  and  try  to 
raise  me  up.  .  .  . 

The  weakness  and  even  exhaustion  which  the 
West  Indian  climate  had  wrought  in  Hearn  were 
painfully  apparent.  His  stay  in  Philadelphia,  warm 
as  that  summer  was  to  us,  brought  him  speedily  back 
to  physical  health.  The  lesson  was  not  unheeded, 
nor  its  implications,  by  his  sensitive  mind. 

I  reproduce  three  photographs  of  Hearn:  the  first 
taken  about  twenty-five  years  ago  (facing  page  64); 
the  second  in  1888  (facing  page  92);  and  the  third, 
by  Mr.  Gutekunst,  at  my  urgent  solicitation,  in  1889, 
while  Hearn  was  stopping  at  my  house  (facing  page 
186). 


In  Person  25 


The  first  gives  one  an  almost  necessarily  false 
impression  because  of  the  purely  anatomic  condition 
of  an  abnormally  large  and  protruding  eye,  which 
produced  an  expression  of  intensity  and  interest 
which  was  not  really  present  in  the  face.  This  seem- 
ing intensity  and  far-lookingness  has  misled  a  recent 
Japanese  writer  into  a  natural  but  regrettable  mis- 
interpretation. Apart  from  the  eye,  had  his  pictures 
(always  posed  in  profile,  of  course)  been  made  of  the 
left  side  of  his  face,  they  would  have  shown  the 
habitual  sadness  and  lack  of  vivacity  in  his  physiog- 
nomy. In  the  second  photograph,  made  in  Mar- 
tinique, this  stamping  is  brought  out  better.  In  my 
picture  of  1889  (the  third)  I  was  unable,  despite 
all  effort,  to  get  Hearn  to  present  to  the  camera  his 
entire  face  with  naturally  open  eyes,  and  the 
customary  expression.  He  resolutely  refused,  and 
consented  to  the  compromise  of  a  two-thirds  view 
with  closed  eyes.  And  this  to  me  is  still  the  most 
truthful  and  hence  the  most  expressive  of  all  his 
photographs.  It  is  so  suggestive  because  of  its  nega- 
tions, so  expressive  because  non-expressive.  But  it 
indicates,  silently  and  by  inference,  the  most  sig- 
nificant fact  about  the  man. 

To  those  who  are  expert  in  such  things,  the  stare 
of  the  highly  myopic  eye  is  known  to  be  not  that  of 
mental  action  and  seeing,  but  of  not  seeing.  When 
we  walk,  we  are  forward-looking  beings,  and  what 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


goes  on  within  the  eye  or  brain  and  what  may  be 
behind  us  is  totally  ignored.  But  for  a  highly 
myopic  person  there  is  no  outward  or  forward 
looking.  Hearn's  closed  eye  gives,  therefore,  a 
decidedly  more  truthful  lesson  in  physiognomy  than 
does  the  open  and  protruding  one,  which  can- 
not see  the  coming  or  future  scene,  or  which  sees  it 
so  vaguely  that  its  hint  of  the  scene  is  perhaps  more 
useless  than  the  imagined  picture  of  the  totally 
blind.  His  inability  to  see  the  presenting  world  had 
resulted  in  a  renunciation  of  outlook  and  an  absolute 
incuriosity  as  to  the  future.  With  weaklings  this 
might  have  brought  about  introspection,  the  mental 
eye — the  product  of  the  physical  eye — turned  in 
upon  itself.  Hearn  was  too  much  of  an  artist  to  fall 
into  that  Death  Valley  of  all  esthetics,  and  there  was 
a  quick  acceptance  of  the  logical  and  inevitable, 
whence  arose  the  wonder  of  poetic  retrospection. 


CHAPTEE  HI 

THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  GRUESOME 

WHEN  Hearn  arrived  in  Cincinnati,  in  1871  or 
1872,  he  was  twenty-one  or  twenty-two  years  of  age. 
All  other  methods  of  making  a  livelihood  except  that 
by  his  pen  had  failed,  or  were  soon  to  fail,  and  it  is 
not  long  before  the  literary  way  is  exclusively  and 
permanently  adopted.  There  was  a  brief  first  time 
of  service  with  Robert  Clarke  and  Company  as  proof- 
reader. The  exact  uses  of  punctuation,  the  clearness 
which  the  proper  marks  give  to  writing,  soon  earned 
for  him  the  sobriquet  "Old  Semicolon"  among  his 
fellow  reporters.  All  his  life  Hearn  clung  meticu- 
lously to  his  theories  concerning  the  necessity  and 
precise  rules  of  punctuation.  Some  of  his  later 
quarrels  with  periodical  editors  and  proof-readers 
arose  from  differences  of  opinion  in  these  things. 
There  was  a  short  engagement  of  Hearn  by  the 
librarian,  Mr.  Thomas  Yickers,  as  private  secretary 
or  helper.  Among  his  early  friends  was  a  printer, 
Mr.  Henry  Watkin,  now  residing  at  1312  McMillan 
Street,  who  was  kind  to  him,  and  who  taught  him  to 
set  type. 

"In  1874,"  Mr.  O.  P.  Caylor1  writes,  "Col.  Cock- 

*A  quotation  in  the  Author,  January  15,  1890,  from  an 
article  by  Mr.  Caylor  in  the  Philadelphia  North  American. 

27 


28  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

erill  of  the  World  was  managing  editor  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati Enquirer.  A  few  weeks  previous  to  the 
'Tan- Yard  Murder'  Mr.  Hearn  came  to  the  Enquirer 
office  to  sell  a  manuscript.  Upstairs  he  ventured, 
but  there  his  courage  failed  him.  It  was  not  enough 
to  induce  him  to  brave  the  awful  editorial  presence. 
So  he  paced  up  and  down  the  hall  with  his  velvet 
restless  tread  until  the  awful  door  opened  and  the 
terrible  giant  came  forth.  Hearn  would,  no  doubt, 
have  run  away  had  he  not  been  at  the  rear  of  the 
hall  when  Mr.  C'ockerill  came  out  into  the  other 
end,  and  the  stairway  was  between. 

aThus  it  occurred  that  the  author  of  'Chita'  sub- 
mitted his  first  manuscript.  He  came  with  others 
later,  but  never  could  he  persuade  himself  to  knock 
at  that  editorial  door  for  admission.  Up  and  down, 
up  and  down  the  hall  he  would  pace  or  glide  until 
Colonel  Cockerill  came  forth,  whether  the  time  con- 
sumed in  waiting  was  ten  minutes  or  two  hours." 

In  Current  Literature,  June,  1896,  Colonel  John 
A.  Cockerill,  writing  of  Hearn,  tells  the  story  thus: 

"Some  twenty  years  ago  I  was  the  editor  in 
charge  of  a  daily  newspaper  in  a  Western  city. 
One  day  there  came  to  my  office  a  quaint,  dark- 
skinned  little  fellow,  strangely  diffident,  wearing 
glasses  of  great  magnifying  power  and  bearing  with 
him  evidence  that  Fortune  and  he  were  scarce  on 
nodding  terms. 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  29 

"In  a  soft,  shrinking  voice  he  asked  if  I  ever  paid 
for  outside  contributions.  I  informed  him  that  I 
was  somewhat  restricted  in  the  matter  of  expenditure, 
but  that  I  would  give  consideration  to  what  he  had 
to  offer.  He  drew  from  under  his  coat  a  manuscript, 
and  tremblingly  laid  it  upon  my  table.  Then  he 
stole  away  like  a  distorted  brownie,  leaving  be- 
hind him  an  impression  that  was  uncanny  and  in- 
describable. 

"Later  in  the  day  I  looked  over  the  contribution 
which  he  had  left.  I  was  astonished  to  find  it 
charmingly  written 

"He  sat  in  the  corner  of  my  room  and  wrote 
special  articles  for  the  Sunday  edition  as  thoroughly 
excellent  as  anything  that  appeared  in  the  magazines 
of  those  days.  I  have  known  him  to  have  twelve  and 
fifteen  columns  of  this  matter  in  a  single  issue  of  the 
paper.  He  was  delighted  to  work,  and  I  was  pleased 
to  have  him  work,  for  his  style  was  beautiful  and 
the  tone  he  imparted  to  the  newspaper  was  consider- 
able. Hour  after  hour  he  would  sit  at  his  table,  his 
great  bulbous  eyes  resting  as  close  to  the  paper  as 
his  nose  would  permit,  scratching  away  with  beaver- 
like  diligence  and  giving  me  no  more  annoyance  than 
a  bronze  ornament. 

"His  eyes  troubled  him  greatly  in  those  days.  He 
was  as  sensitive  as  a  flower.  An  unkind  word  from 
anybody  was  as  serious  to  him  as  a  cut  from  a 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


whiplash,  but  I  do  not  believe  he  was  in  any  sense 

resentful He  was  poetic,  and  his  whole 

nature  seemed  attuned  to  the  beautiful,  and  he  wrote 
beautifully  of  things  which  were  neither  wholesome 
nor  inspiring.  He  came  to  be  in  time  a  member  of 
the  city  staff  at  a  fair  compensation,  and  it  was  then 
that  his  descriptive  powers  developed.  He  loved  to 
write  of  things  in  humble  life.  He  prowled  about 
the  dark  corners  of  the  city,  and  from  gruesome 
places  he  dug  out  charming  idyllic  stories.  The 
negro  stevedores  on  the  steamboat-landings  fasci- 
nated him.  He  wrote  of  their  songs,  their  imitations, 
their  uncouth  ways,  and  he  found  picturesqueness  in 
their  rags,  poetry  in  their  juba  dances." 

In  January  or  February,  1874,  there  was  a  hor- 
rible murder,  "the  famous  Tan-Yard  case,"  in  Cin- 
cinnati, and  Hearn's  account  of  it  in  the  Enquirer, 
from  the  newspaper  and  reportorial  standpoint  was 
so  graphic  and  so  far  beyond  the  power  of  all  rivals 
that  he  was  henceforth  assured  of  employment  and 
of  a  measure  and  kind  of  respect.  His  friend,  Mr. 
Edward  Henderson,  formerly  city  editor  of  the 
Commercial,  now  City  Clerk  in  Cincinnati,  says 
that  because  of  his  startling  report  of  this  murder 
"his  city  editors  kept  him  at  the  most  arduous  work 
of  a  daily  morning  paper — the  night-stations,  for  in 
that  field  mostly  developed  the  sensational  events 
that  were  worthy  of  his  pen.  In  these  days  his 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  31 

powers  would  be  held  in  reserve  to  write  up  what 

others  should  discover His  repertory 

was  strongest  in  the  unusual  and  the  startling.  He 
was  never  known  to  shirk  hardship  or  danger  in  fill- 
ing an  assignment  or  following  up  his  self-obtained 
pointer." 

The  beginning  of  Hearn's  literary  career  was  his 
report  of  the  Tan- Yard  Murder  case.  It  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  November,  1874. 
I  shall  quote  some  parts  of  it  in  a  footnote  to  illus- 
trate his  innate  and  studied  ability  to  outfit  with 
words  and  expressions  of  the  most  startling  and 
realistic  picturing  quality,  the  most  horrible  and 
loathsome  facts.  Keeping  in  mind  the  comparison 
with  the  illustrations  from  his  later  work  in  which 
he  was  equally  capable  of  painting  noble  and  beauti- 
ful things  (all  except  those  of  a  spiritual  or  religious 
nature),  one  is  filled  with  admiration  of  a  faculty  so 
rare  and  perfect.  Those  who  are  sensitive  should 
not  read  the  excerpts  which  I  append,  and  which  are 
given  in  obedience  to  a  sense  of  duty.1 

11 'An  Enquirer  reporter  visited  the  establishment  some  hours 
later,  accompanied  by  Dr.  Maley,  and  examined  all  so  far  dis- 
covered of  Herman  Schilling's  charred  corpse.  The  hideous 
mass  of  reeking  cinders,  despite  all  the  efforts  of  the  brutal 
murderers  to  hide  their  ghastly  crime,  remain  sufficiently  intact 
to  bear  frightful  evidence  against  them. 

"On  lifting  the  coffin-lid,  a  powerful  and  penetrating  odor, 
strongly  resembling  the  smell  of  burnt  beef,  yet  heavier  and 
fouler,  filled  the  room  and  almost  sickened  the  spectators.  But 


32  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"When  his  city  editor,  in  compliance  with  the 
urgency  of  a  steeple-climber,  consented  to  send  a 
reporter  to  take  observations  of  the  city  from  the 
top  of  the  cross  surmounting  the  spire  of  St.  Peter's 
Cathedral  in  Cincinnati,  Hearn  was  the  man  selected. 
In  mentioning  the  assignment  to  him,  the  city  editor 

the  sight  of  the  black  remains  was  far  more  sickening.  Laid 
upon  the  clean  white  lining  of  the  coffin,  they  rather  resembled 
great  shapeless  lumps  of  half-burnt  bituminous  coal  than  aught 
else  at  the  first  hurried  glance;  and  only  a  closer  investigation 
could  enable  a  strong-stomached  observer  to  detect  their  ghastly 
character — masses  of  crumbling  human  bones,  strung  together 
by  half-burnt  sinews,  or  glued  one  upon  another  by  a  hideous 
adhesion  of  half-molten  flesh,  boiled  brains  and  jellied  blood, 
mingled  with  coal. 

"The  skull  had  burst  like  a  shell  in  the  fierce  furnace  heat, 
and  the  whole  upper  portion  seemed  as  though  it  had  been  blown 
out  by  the  steam  from  the  boiling  and  bubbling  brains.  Only 
the  posterior  portion  of  the  occipital  and  parietal  bones,  and 
the  inferior  and  superior  maxillary,  and  some  of  the  face  bones 
remained, — the  upper  portion  of  the  skull  bones  being  jagged, 
burnt  brown  in  some  spots,  and  in  others  charred  to  black  ashes. 
The  brain  had  all  boiled  away,  save  a  small  waste  lump  at  the 
base  of  the  skull  about  the  size  of  a  lemon.  It  was  crisped  and 
still  warm  to  the  touch.  On  pushing  the  finger  through  the 
crisp,  the  interior  felt  about  the  consistency  of  banana  fruit, 
and  the  yellow  fibers  seemed  to  writhe  like  worms  in  the  Coro- 
ner's hands.  The  eyes  were  cooked  to  bubbled  crisps  in  the 
blackened  sockets,  and  the  bones  of  the  nose  were  gone,  leaving 
a  hideous  hole. 

"So  covered  were  the  jaws  and  the  lower  facial  bones  with 
coal,  crusted  blood  and  gummy  flesh,  that  the  Coroner  at  first 
supposed  that  the  lower  maxillary  had  been  burned  away.  On 
tearing  away  the  frightful  skull-mask  of  mingled  flesh  and  coal 
and  charred  gristle,  however,  the  grinning  teeth  shone  ghastly 
white,  and  the  jaws  were  found  intact.  They  were  set  together 
so  firmly  that  it  was  found  impossible  to  separate  them,  without 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  33 

handed  him  a  valuable  field-glass,  with  the  sugges- 
tion that  he  might  find  it  useful.  On  taking  his 
departure  with  the  climbers,  Hearn  quietly  handed 
back  the  glasses  with  the  remark  in  undertone,  'Per- 
haps I'd  better  not  take  these;  something  might 
happen.'  He  made  the  trip  to  the  top  of  the  spire, 
though  the  men  found  it  necessary  to  haul  him  part 


reducing  the  whole  mass  to  ashes.  So  great  had  been  the  heat 
that  the  Coroner  was  able  to  crumble  one  of  the  upper  teeth  in 
his  fingers. 

"Besides  the  fragments  of  the  skull,  have  been  found  six 
ribs  of  the  right  side  and  four  of  the  left;  the  middle  portion 
of  the  spinal-column ;  the  liver,  spleen,  and  kidneys ;  the  pelvic 
bones,  the  right  and  left  humerus,  the  femoral  bone  and  the 
tibia  and  fibula  of  both  legs.  The  body  had  burnt  open  at  the 
chest,  and  the  heart  and  lungs  had  been  entirely  consumed. 
The  liver  had  been  simply  roasted  and  the  kidneys  fairly  fried. 
There  is  a  horrible  probability  that  the  wretched  victim  was 
forced  into  the  furnace  alive,  and  suffered  all  the  agonies  of  the 
bitterest  death  man  can  die,  while  wedged  in  the  flaming  flue. 
The  teeth  were  so  terribly  clinched  that  more  than  one  spectator 
of  the  hideous  skull  declared  that  only  the  most  frightful  agony 
could  have  set  those  jaws  together.  Perhaps,  stunned  and 
disabled  by  the  murderous  blows  of  his  assailants,  the  uncon- 
scious body  of  the  poor  German  was  forced  into  the  furnace. 
Perhaps  the  thrusts  of  the  assassin's  pitchfork,  wedging  him 
still  further  into  the  fiery  hell,  or  perhaps  the  first  agony  of 
burning  when  his  bloody  garments  took  fire,  revived  him  to  meet 
the  death  of  flames.  Fancy  the  shrieks  for  mercy,  the  mad  ex- 
postulation, the  frightful  fight  for  life,  the  superhuman  struggle 
for  existence — a  century  of  agony  crowded  into  a  moment — the 
shrieks  growing  feebler — the  desperate  struggle  dying  into  feeble 
writhings.  And  through  it  all,  the  grim  murderers,  demoniacally 
pitiless,  devilishly  desperate,  gasping  with  their  exertions  to 
destroy  a  poor  human  life,  looking  on  in  silent  triumph,  peering 
into  the  furnace  until  the  skull  exploded,  and  the  steaming  body 


34  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

of  the  way  in  mid-air  and  to  bodily  place  and  hold 
him  on  top  of  the  cross.  And  he  produced  an  ac- 
count of  that  thrilling  experience  that  went  the 
round  of  the  newspaper  world."1 

It  is  little  wonder  that  his  "Vocabulary  of  the 
Gruesome"  became  famous,  since  I  have  learned 
from  his  friend  and  associate,  the  artist  Mr.  Farney, 
and  also  from  others,  certain  facts  which  demonstrate 
that  this  vocabulary  was  gathered  not  only  or  chiefly 
because  of  the  exigencies  of  his  work  as  a  reporter, 
or  to  express  the  revolting  in  thrilling  words,  but 
because  he  had  a  spontaneous  lickerishness  for  the 
things  themselves.  He  positively  delighted  in  the 
gruesome.  With  his  fingers  he  dug  into  the  scorched 
flesh  and  the  exuding  brains  of  the  murdered  man's 
body  when  it  was  taken  from  the  furnace,  and  in 
another  murder  case  he  slid  on  the  floor,  as  if  on 
ice,  in  the  congealed  blood  of  the  victim.  "He  even 
drank  blood  at  the  abattoirs  with  the  consumptives 
when  that  craze  had  fallen  upon  the  people  of  Cin- 
cinnati." There  is  more  than  an  excuse  for  mention- 
burst,  and  the  fiery  flue  hissed  like  a  hundred  snakes !  It  may 
not  be  true — we  hope  for  humanity's  sake  it  cannot  be  true ; 
but  the  rightful  secrets  of  that  fearful  night  are  known  only 
to  the  criminals  and  their  God.  They  may  be  brought  to 
acknowledge  much ;  but  surely  never  so  much  as  we  have  dared 
to  hint  at." 

JOur  wonder  at  the  performance  is  heightened  by  the  fact 
that  Hearn,  of  course,  saw  nothing  of  what  he  so  vividly  de- 
scribed. 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  35 

ing  these  things;  it  is  necessary  to  da  so  in  order  to 
understand  the  origin  and  transformation  of  Hearn's 
chief  endowment  as  a  writer. 

Even  more  convincing,  perhaps,  than  these  offen- 
sive gloatings  as  regards  his  native  love  of  the  grue- 
some, is  the  unconscious  testimony  given  in  the 
history  of  an  illustrated  paper  established  by  Mr. 
Farney  and  Mr.  Hearn.  Mr.  Henderson  has  said  of 
Hearn  that  "very  rarely  was  he  known  to  throw  a 
soupgon  of  humor  into  his  work."  The  newspaper 
venture  demonstrates  that  even  when  humor  was 
planned  Hearn  had  none  to  give. 

Number  One,  Volume  One,  of  Ye  Giglampz  was 
issued  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  on  June  21,  1874,  and  de- 
scribes itself  on  the  title-page  as,  "A  Weekly  Illus- 
trated Journal,  Devoted  to  Art,  Literature  and 
Satire."  The  size  of  the  pages  was  144  x  lOf  inches. 
The  subsequent  issues  were  larger,  about  16  x  11^ 
inches.  There  were  eight  pages  in  each  number, 
the  first,  third,  fourth  and  eighth  were  illustrated 
by  Mr.  H.  F.  Farney;  the  others  were  made  up  of 
reading  matter.  The  heading  of  the  editorial  page 
did  not  exactly  repeat  that  of  the  title  page,  but  read 

as  follows: 

"The  Giglampz. " 
Published  Daily,  except  Week-Days. 

Terms,   $2.50   per   annum. 

Address,  "Giglampz  Publishing  Co." 

150  West  Fourth  St. 


36  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

With  the  issue  of  Number  Seven  (August  2,  1874) 
appeared  a  notice  that  H.  F.  Farney  and  Company 
had  purchased  the  Giglampz  from  its  former  pro- 
prietors, the  new  office  being  henceforth  at  the 
Northwest  corner  of  Fourth  and  Race  Streets. 
Number  Eight  was  the  last  furnished  subscribers. 
Probably  the  only  existing  set  of  this  periodical  is 
that  kindly  lent  to  me  by  Mr.  Farney  at  the  request 
of  Mr.  Alexander  Hill  of  The  Robert  Clarke  Com- 
pany, Cincinnati.  Among  the  many  significant 
things  suggested  in  looking  over  the  pages,  is  the 
fact  that  this  bound  file  was  Hearn's  personal 
copy,  his  name  being  written  on  the  cover-leaf  by 
himself — "L.  Hearn,  1877" — and  just  below,  this: 
"Reminiscences  of  An  Editorship  under  Diffi- 
culties." 

It  is  noteworthy  that  nowhere  is  it  publicly  an- 
nounced that  Hearn  was  the  editor,  although  the 
fact  was  probably  an  open  secret  in  Cincinnati  at  the 
time.  The  truth  of  the  foregoing  inscription  in  his 
handwriting  is  confirmed  by  the  acknowledgment  of 
his  authorship  of  most  of  the  articles,  contributed  as 
well  as  editorial,  conveyed  by  his  customary  sig- 
nature, penciled  at  the  end  or  beginning  of  each 
paragraph  or  column  which  he  had  written.  The 
very  title  of  the  paper  itself  was  a  witness  in  the 
same  way,  and  shows  that  at  that  time,  although 
Hearn  kept  his  name  concealed,  he  was  not,  as  later, 


No  I 


<!lNClNNATr    JUNE 


Voti 


REDUCED    FIRST    PAGE    OF    THE    FIRST    ISSUE 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  37 

sensitive  concerning  his  ocular  defect.1  It  is  plain 
that  the  word  Giglampz  refers  to  the  large  and  con- 
spicuous spectacles  or  eye-glasses  which  at  that  time 
(not  later)  were  worn  habitually  by  Hearn.  The 
proof  of  this  comes  out  in  the  .illustration  occupying 
the  full  first  page  of  the  initial  number,  and  entitled: 

"A  Prospect  of  Herr  Kladderadatsch, 

Introducynge 
Mr.  Giglampz  tu  ye  Publycke." 

The  scene  is  that  of  the  stage  of  a  theatre,  and  Klad- 
deradatsch proudly  presents  Mr.  Giglampz  to  the 
wildly  applauding  audience.  The  head  of  the  ob- 
sequious Mr.  Giglampz  is  very  large  compared  with 
his  body,  but  most  conspicuous  is  the  enormous  pince- 
nez  astride  a  nose  of  fitting  proportions.  Mr.  Farney 
was  even  permitted  to  give  a  mere  hint  of  the  editor's 
facial  expression. 

A  curious  and  suggestive,  even  a  pathetic,  light  is 
thrown  upon  Hearn's  character  by  the  fact  that  this 
personal  file  of  his  journal  with  his  own  inscriptions. 

*In  the  first  number  is  an  editorial  paragraph,  written  by 
Hearn,  reading  as  follows : —  "The  public  has  indulged  in  specu- 
lation and  no  little  levity,  in  regard  to  our  name.  In  this  as 
in  the  future  conduct  of  this  extraordinary  sheet,  we  seek  only 
to  please  ourselves.  Whether  the  Publishing  Company  will 
declare  'Irish  Dividends'  in  six  months,  or  not,  does  not  con- 
cern us.  We  (the  editorial  corps)  being  on  a  salary,  look  on 
public  favor  with  serene  indifference.  The  name  pleases  us. 
We  look  upon  it  in  the  light  of  a  conundrum,  calculated  to 
induce  reflection  in  simple  minds.  We  hope  some  one  may  solve 
it,  as  we  have  incontinently  given  it  up." 


38  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

signatures,  etc.,  was  found  in  a  second-hand  book- 
store by  Mr.  Farney  after  Hearn  left  Cincinnati. 

Although  it  is  as  much  too  long  for  our  quoting 
as  it  was  for  introducing  the  journalistic  venture,  I 
cannot  help  reproducing  Hearn's  first  editorial,  the 
"Salutatory,  By  a  Celebrated  French  Author,  a 
Friend  of  Giglampz:" 

It  was  a  dark  and  fearsome  night  in  the  month  of  June, 
1874;  and  the  pavements  of  Fourth  Street  were  aban- 
doned to  solitude. 

The  lamps,  dripping  huge  water-drops  fire-tinged  from 
their  lurid  glare,  seemed  monstrous  yellow  goblin-eyes, 
weeping  phosphorescent  tears. 

It  was  raining,  and  the  funereal  sky  flamed  with  light- 
ning. It  was  such  a  rain  as  in  the  primeval  world  created 
verdant '  seas  of  slimy  mud,  subsequently  condensed  into 
that  fossiliferous  strata  where  to-day  spectacled  geolo- 
gists find  imbedded  the  awful  remains  of  the  titanic 
iguanodon,  the  plesiosmirus,  and  the  icthyosaurus. 

We  sat  motionlessly  meditative  in  the  shadows  of  a 
Gothic  doorway  of  medieval  pattern,  and  ruefully  ob- 
served the  movements  of  a  giant  rat,  slaking  his  thirst  at 
a  water-spout.  Suddenly  we  were  aware  of  a  pressure — 
a  gentle  pressure  on  our  shoulder. 

A  hurried  glance  convinced  us  that  the  pressure  was 
occasioned  by  the  presence  of  a  hand. 

It  was  a  long,  bony,  ancient  hand,  dried  and  withered 
to  the  consistency  of  India-rubber.  It  might  have  been 
compared  to  the  hand  of  a  mummy  embalmed  in  the  reign 
of  Rameses  III,  but  we  felt  a  living  warmth  in  its  pres- 
sure, penetrating  our  summer  linen. 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  39 


The  Oriental  wizards  occasionally  need  the  assistance 
of  a  magic  candle,  in  their  groping  amid  ancient  tombs — 
a  candle  which  burns  with  a  fuming  stench  so  foul,  that 
hungry  ghouls  flee  dismayedly  away.  This  candle  is  made 
of  green  fat — the  fat  of  men  long  dead.  For  such  a 
candle  it  is  of  course  necessary  to  have  a  candlestick.  To 
procure  this  candlestick  it  is  necessary  to  cut  off  the  right 
hand  of  a  murderous  criminal  executed  by  impalement, 
and  having  carefully  dried  it,  to  insert  the  candle  in  its 
ghastly  grasp.  Now  the  hand  laid  on  our  shoulder 
strongly  resembled  such  a  hand. 

The  living  warmth  of  its  pressure  alone  restrained  us 
from  uttering  a  shriek  of  hideous  fear.  A  cold  sweat 
ravaged  the  starched  bosom  of  our  under-garment. 

Suddenly  a  face  peered  out  from  the  shadow,  and  the 
sickly  glare  of  the  flickering  gas-lamp  fell  full  upon  it. 

The  aspect  of  that  face  immediately  reassured  us. 

It  was  long  to  grotesqueness  and  meagre  even  to  weird- 
ness.  It  would  have  been  strongly  Mephistophelic  but 
for  an  air  of  joviality  that  was  not  wholly  saturnine.  The 
eyes  were  deep,  piercing,  but  ' '  laughter-stirred, ' '  as  those 
of  Haroun  Alraschid.  The  nose  was  almost  satanically 
aquiline,  but  its  harsh  outline  was  more  than  relieved  by 
the  long  smiling  mouth,  and  the  countless  wrinkles  of 
merriment  that  intersected  one  another  in  crow's-feet  all 
over  the  ancient  face.  The  stranger's  complexion  was 
that  of  caout-chouc;  and  his  long  lank  locks  were 
blacker  than  the  plumage  of  those  yellow-footed  birds 
that  prey  upon  the  dead.  His  whole  aspect  was  that  of 
one  who,  by  some  eerie,  occult  art  of  self-preservation,  had 
been  enabled  to  live  through  the  centuries. 

"Am  I  not  addressing  the  celebrated  author 
said  the  voice  of  the  uncouthly-featured. 


40  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

It  was  a  half-merry,  half-mocking  voice — a  deep  voice 
that  sounded  as  though  conveyed  from  a  vast  distance 
through  the  medium  of  a  pneumatic  tube. 

It  therefore  resembled  in  its  tone  the  dreamily-distant 
voices  never-slumbering  Fancy  hears  in  the  hours  de- 
voted to  darkness  and  slumber  by  moral  people. 

An  enormous  drop  of  soot-tinged  water  fell  upon  our 
nose,  incontestably  proving  that  we  were  awake;  and  we 
murmured  monosyllabic  assent  to  the  stranger's  query. 

"It  is  well, ' '  replied  the  Unknown,  with  a  latitudinarian 
smile  of  joy.  "I  have  been  seeking  you.  I  need  your 
assistance,  your  talent,  your  mental  vigor  so  enormously 
manifested  in  your  cyclopean1  phrenological  develop- 
ment. ' ' 

"Sapristi,  monsieur! — permit  me  to  inquire  the  nature 
of-  -" 

"Attend  a  little,  friend,  and  your  curiosity  shall  be 
sated  with  ample  satisfaction.  I  have  existed  as  you  see 
through  all  ages.  I  have  lived  under  a  thousand  alias 
names,  under  the  various  regimes  of  a  thousand  civiliza- 
tions, which  flourished  on  ancient  soil  now  covered  by  the 
mile-deep  waters  of  foaming  oceans.  I  have  made  my 
dwelling-place  in  the  mighty  palace-halls  of  Egyptian 
kings,  in  the  giant  cities  of  dead  Assyria,  in  the  resi- 
dences of  Aztec  monarchs  and  Peruvian  Incas,  in  the 
snow-columned  temples  of  the  Greek,  and  the  lordly 
homes  of  the  luxurious  Roman.  In  fact,  I  am  rock-ribbed 
and  ancient  as  the  sun;  and  have  been  worshiped  as  a 
genius  in  far-sparkling  planets  ere  this  mundane  sphere 
was  first  evolved  from  that  flaming  orb.  In  all  time  when 
individualized  intelligent  thought  existed,  I  have  incul- 

lfThe  contrast  of  this  allusion  to  his  large  single  eye  with 
his  morbid  shyness  about  it  of  late  years  is  noteworthy. 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  41 


cated  in  living  beings  the  truth  of  that  sublime  and  eternal 
maxim — Laugh  and  grow  fat.  To-day  men  must  be  taught 
this  glorious  truth  by  the  Bullock  Press  rather  than  the 
Tongue.  I  want  your  pen,  not  your  tongue.  Write  me  a 
salutatory  for  my  new  illustrated  weekly — only  five  cents 
a  copy." 

With  these  words  he  pressed  a  glazed  Bristol-board 
card  into  our  trembling  hand,  and  disappeared. 

By  the  light  of  the  weeping  street-lamps  we  read 
thereon  this  weird  legend: 

GIGLAMPZ 

The  title  itself,  the  Introduction  by  "Kladdera- 
datsch,"  and  the  character  of  the  contributions  and 
cuts  make  it  plain  that  the  third  object  of  the  pub- 
lication, called  "Satire,"  was  designed  to  be  much 
more  prominent  than  "Art"  or  "Literature."  Un- 
questionably an  American  Kladderadatsch  was 
planned,  and  by  Hearn  and  his  friends  it  was  sup- 
posed that  the  editor  had  a  sense  of  humor  sufficient 
to  carry  on  the  undertaking.  I  have  quoted  the 
Salutatory  to  show  that  with  the  favoring  of  youth, 
ambition,  opportunity  and  the  best  encouragement, 
Hearn's  mind  from  the  first  line  drifted  inevitably 
to  the  fearsome,  the  weird,  the  unearthly  and  far- 
away. By  no  power  or  necessity  could  his  imagina- 
tion be  forced  or  bound  to  the  task  of  producing 
things  comic  or  even  satiric,  especially  such  humor 
and  jokes  as  the  Cincinnati  newspaper  reader  wanted 
in  1874.  Of  the  twelve  columns  of  reading  in  the 


42  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

first  number  of  Giglampz,  Hearn  contributed  about 
eight,  made  up  of  fifteen  or  twenty  distinct  para- 
graphs. In  the  second  number  his  contributions 
number  seven ;  in  the  third,  six ;  in  the  fourth,  three ; 
in  the  fifth,  four;  in  the  sixth,  two;  in  the  seventh, 
one;  in  the  eighth,  one.  In  about  a  dozen  of  the 
first  number,  he  somewhat  unsuccessfully  tried  to  be 
humorous  or  satiric,  while  six  were  frankly  tragical, 
critical,  bitter,  etc.  In  the  succeeding  numbers 
Hearn  made  little  effort  to  be  humorous;  in  the  fifth 
number  he  describes  with  startling  power  a  picture 
of  "a  hideous  scene  in  the  interior  of  a  seraglio;"  in 
number  six  he  returns  to  the  Orient  and  in  "The 
Fantasy  of  a  Fan"  mixes  poetry,  prose  and  fancy 
with  a  hinting  of  the  subtle  soft  witchery  of  the 
Hearn  of  twenty-five  years  later.1  In  the  second 
number  is  a  full-page  cut,  in  which  Beecher  is  de- 
picted as  standing  before  a  crowd  of  jeerers  prior  to 
being  placed  in  the  stocks,  with  the  scarlet  letter 
"A"  upon  his  breast.  Hearn  especially  requested 
Mr.  Farney  to  make  him  one  of  the  conspicuous 
spectators.  The  bespectacled  face  is  easily  recogniz- 
able in  the  copy  given  me  by  the  artist.  In  the 
seventh  number  Hearn  describes  in  two  columns  the 
story  he  supposes  behind  the  picture  of  Gabriel  Max. 
called,  "The  Last  Farewell"  (now  in  the  Metropoli- 

xMr.  Farney  tells  me  that  he  had  to  compel  Hearn,  even 
then,  to  moderate  the  boldness  of  sentences  which  would  by 
their  sensualism  and  license  shock  their  Cincinnati  readers. 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  43 

tan  Museum,  New  York).  It  shows  so  early  sugges- 
tions of  the  manhood  strength  of  the  word-master 
that  I  copy  it : 

THE  TALE  A  PICTURE  TELLS 
"Butchered  to  make  a  Roman  Holiday" 

The  remarkably  fine  engraving  from  Gabriel  Max's 
picture, ' '  The  Last  Farewell, "  in  a  late  issue  of  the  Berlin 
Illustrirte  Zeitung  (and  which  the  New  York  Graphic  a 
few  days  since  stole  to  spoil  in  the  stealing),  is  worthy 
of  the  celebrated  original  at  Munich — a  painting  which 
will  never  be  forgotten  by  those  who  have  once  beheld  it. 
Among  modern  painters,  probably  Max  has  no  superior  in 
the  art  of  harmoniously  blending  the  horrible  with  the 
pathetic;  and  in  none  of  his  works  is  this  peculiar  power 
exhibited  to  better  advantage  than  in  "The  Last  Fare- 
well:'1 a  marvel  of  color  and  composition,  one  of  those 
rare  pictures  which  seem  to  reflect  the  living  shadows 
of  a  dead  age  with  the  weird  truthfulness  of  a  wizard's 
mirror.  ^ 

A  beautiful  Roman  girl  is  exposed  in  the  Flavian  amphi- 
theatre, to  be  devoured  by  wild  beasts.  She  can  scarcely 
be  eighteen  years  old,  judging  from  the  slender  delicacy 
of  her  limbs  and  the  childish  sweetness  of  the  pretty 
little  brown  face  which  she  has  vainly  been  striving  to 
screen  from  the  rude  gaze  of  the  shameless  populace  with 
the  remnants  of  a  rich  black  veil — probably  torn  by  the 
rough  hands  of  some  brutal  lanista.  She  leans  with  her 
back  to  the  great  wall  of  stone,  calmly  awaiting  her  fate 
without  any  signs  of  fear,  although  the  hot,  foul  breath 
of  a  panther  is  already  warm  upon  her  naked  feet.  To 


44  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

her  right,  but  a  few  feet  away,  a  leopard  and  a  huge 
bear  are  tearing  each  other  to  pieces ;  on  her  left,  another 
den  has  just  been  thrown  open,  and  at  its  entrance  appears 
the  hideous  head  of  an  immense  tiger,  with  eyes  that  flame 
like  emeralds. 

You  can  almost  feel  the  warmth  of  the  fierce  summer 
sun  shining  on  that  scene  of  blood  and  crime,  falling  on 
the  yellow  sands  of  the  arena,  drying  the  dark  pools  of 
human  blood  the  wild  beasts  have  left  unlapped.  You 
can  almost  hear  the  deep  hum  of  a  hundred  thousand 
voices  above,  and  the  hideous  growlings  of  the  contending 
brutes  below.  You  wonder  whether  there  is  one  heart 
in  all  that  vast  crowd  of  cruel  spectators,  wherein  some 
faint  impulse  of  humanity  still  lingers,  one  tongue  chari- 
table enough  to  exclaim : 

" Poor  little  thing!" 

No:  only  wicked  whispers  followed  by  coarse  laughter; 
monstrous  indifference  in  the  lower  tiers,  brutal  yells  of 
bloodthirsty  impatience  from  the  upper  seats. 

Two  Roman  knights  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  scene 
by  strange  speculation. 

"One  hundred  sesterces  that  the  tiger  gets  her  first !" 

' '  Two  hundred  on  the  panther ! ' ' 

"Done,  by  the  gods!    Where  are  the  lions  1" 

"Why,  that  cursed  barbarian  killed  the  last  three  this 
morning,  one  after  another.  The  finest  lions  of  the 
lot,  too." 

"Who  are  you  talking  about? — that  tall,  dark  Thra- 
cian?" 

"No:  he  was  killed  the  day  before  by  the  same  gladi- 
ator that  killed  the  lions.  I  mean  that  golden-haired 
giant — that  Goth.  Says  he  was  chief  in  his  own  country, 
or  something.  He's  killed  everybody  and  everything 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  45 

pitted  against  him  so  far.  And  this  morning  they  put 
him  naked  in  the  arena,  with  nothing  but  a  mirmillo's 
shield,  and  a  sword;  and  let  the  lions  loose  on  him  one 
after  another.  I  bet  a  thousand  sesterces  on  that  little 
Numidian  lion ;  but  the  rascal  killed  him  as  he  sprang,  with 
one  sword-thrust,  and  I  lost  my  thousand  sesterces.  By 
Hercules,  that  Goth  is  a  match  for  a  dozen  lions ! '  ' 

" Brave  fellow,  by  all  the  gods!  Did  they  give  him 
the  wooden  sword  f ' ' 

"Julius  Cortonus  says  they  did.  I  didn't  stay  to  see 
the  rest  of  the  games,  for  I  was  too  angry  about  my 
thousand  sesterces." 

"Furies  take  that  tiger! — I  believe  the  brute's  afraid 

of  the  girl!" 

****** 

"Why,  it  is  madness  to  throw  such  a  fine-limbed  girl 
as  that  to  the  lions!"  cries  a  Greek  merchant,  lately 
arrived  in  Rome.  "Eyes  and  hair,  by  Zeus,  like  Venus 
Anadyomene.  I  could  sell  her  for  a  fortune  in  a  slave- 
market.  ' ' 

"Aedepol!  not  in  a  Roman  slave-market,  you  fool. 
Why,  Pve  known  Lucullus  to  throw  better  looking  girls 
than  that  into  his  fishpond,  to  fatten  his  lampreys  with. 
May  Cerberus  swallow  that  cursed  tiger ! ' ' 

****** 

The  tiger  has  not  yet  moved;  his  vast  head  and  flaming 
green  eyes  are  just  visible  at  the  door  of  the  den.  The 
leopard  and  the  bear  are  still  tearing  one  another.  The 
panther  is  gradually,  stealthily,  noiselessly  approaching 
the  poor,  helpless  girl. 

Suddenly  a  fresh,  bright-red  rose  is  thrown  from  the 
seats  above:  it  is  the  last  earthly  greeting,  the  last  fare- 
well token  of  some  old  friend — perhaps  a  brother,  perhaps 


46  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

(0  God!)  a  lover!  It  falls  on  the  blood-stained  sand, 
shattering  itself  in  perfumed  ruin  at  the  maiden's  feet. 

She  starts  as  the  red  leaves  scatter  before  her.  She 
advances  from  the  wall,  and  boldly  withdrawing  the 
fragments  of  her  poor,  torn  veil,  looks  up  into  the  mighty 
sea  of  pitiless  visages — looks  up  with  her  sweet,  childish, 
cherry-lipped  face,  and  those  great,  dark,  softly  sad 
Roman  eyes — to  thank  him  by  a  last  look  of  love.  ''Who 
can  it  be?" 

No  one  the  maiden  knows.  She  only  sees  a  seemingly 
endless  row  of  cruel  and  sensual  faces,  the  faces  of  the 
wild  beast  populace  of  Rome, — the  faces  which  smile  at 
the  sight  of  a  living  human  body,  torn  limb  from  limb 
by  lions,  and  scattered  over  the  sands  in  crimson  shreds 
of  flesh.  .  .  . 

Suddenly  a  terrible  yet  friendly  eye  meets  and  rivets 
the  gaze  of  her  own — an  eye  keen  and  coldly-blue  as  a 
blade  of  steel.  A  sternly  handsome  Northern  face  it  is, 
with  flowing  yellow  hair.  For  an  instant  the  iron  lips 
seem  to  soften  in  a  smile  of  pity,  and  the  keen  blue  eyes 
become  brighter.  So  do  the  soft  dark  ones  they  meet  in 
that  piteous  farewell. 

She  has  found  her  unknown  friend. 

....  A  crash — a  fierce  growl — a  faint,  helpless  cry — 

a  spray  of  warm,  bright  blood. 

****** 

"Ah,  Caius!  you've  lost  your  hundred  sesterces.  The 
Fates  are  against  you  to-day!" 

( '  Curse  the  Fates !  Did  you  see  the  fool  who  threw  her 
the  rose?" 

"That  great  tall  Titan  of  a  fellow,  with  the  yellow 
hair?" 

"Yes.     That's  the  Goth." 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  47 

"What!  the  gladiator  who  killed  the  lions?" 
"The  same  who  won  his  freedom  this  morning.  See! 
the  fool's  wiping  his  eyes  now.  These  Goths  can  fight 
like  Hercules,  but  they  whine  like  sick  women  when  a  girl 
is  hurt.  They  think  up  in  the  North  that  women  are  to 
be  worshipped  like  the  immortal  gods.  I  wish  they'd 
make  the  great  red-headed  brute  go  down  and  kill  that 
cursed  tiger!" 

Hearn's  single  contribution;  to  the  last  number  of 
the  fated  Giglampz  was  a  four-column  retelling  of 
"the  weird  story  of  Lokis'  evil  children  from  the 
strange  folk-lore  of  Ancient  Scandinavia." 

It  was  thus  blood,  sensualism  and  fiendishness 
that  still  aroused  Hearn's  interest  when  not  only  not 
compelled  to  the  choice,  but  when  they  were  con- 
traindicated  and  wholly  illogical.  But  it  was  all  a 
little  less  revolting,  less  real,  more  artistic,  than  the 
tan-yard  reporting,  and  it  was  drawn  from  more 
remote  sources.  Mr.  Henderson  suggests  the  same 
when  he  writes: 

"But  it  was  not  in  this  slavery  for  a  living  even  to 
crush  out  of  him  the  determination  to  advance  and 
excel.  In  the  small  hours  of  morning,  into  broad 
daylight,  after  the  rough  work  of  the  police  rounds 
and  the  writing  of  perhaps  columns,  in  his  inimitable 
style,  he  could  be  seen,  under  merely  a  poor  jet  of 
gas,  with  his  one  useful  eye  close  to  book  and  manu- 
script, translating  'One  of  Cleopatra's  Nights.' 


48  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"An  Oriental  warmth  and  glow  pervaded  him. 
While  his  lines  were  hard  ones  in  the  grime  and  soot 
and  trying  weather  of  Cincinnati,  from  which  his 
frail  body  shrank  continually,  his  trend  of  thought 
was  largely  tropical.  Perhaps  he  saw  beyond  the 
dusky  faces,  rolling  eyes  and  broad  noses  of  the 
people  of  the  Cincinnati  levee,  the  mixed  people  of 
the  "West  Indies  and  the  beautiful  little  ones  of 
Japan,  with  whom  he  was  destined  to  live  before 
long.  However  that  may  be,  his  greatest  pleasure, 
after  a  translation  from  Grautier  or  an  original 
tragedy  where  he  could  in  his  masterful  way  use  his 
vocabulary  of  the  gruesome,  was  to  study  and 
absorb  the  indolent,  sensuous  life  of  the  negro  race, 
as  he  found  it  in  Cincinnati  and  New  Orleans,  and  to 
steep  them  in  a  sense  of  romance  that  he  alone  could 
extract  from  the  study.  Things  that  were  common  to 
these  people  in  their  everyday  life,  his  vivid  im- 
agination transformed  into  a  subtle  melody  of 
romance.  The  distant  booming  upon  the  midnight 
air  of  a  river  steamer's  whistle  was  for  him  the 
roustabout's  call  to  his  waiting  mistress  at  the  land- 
ing, and  his  fruitful  pen  drew  the  picture  of  their 
watching  and  coming  and  meeting." 

JThe  words  indolent  and  sensuous  life  are  also  sig- 
nificant. The  tropics,  their  fatalism  and  the  kind  of 
life  there  lived  were  drawing  him  with  secret  but 
irresistible  force.  Now  begins  to  mix  with  and  mol- 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  49 

lify  the  gruesome  a  softer  element,  also  Oriental,  or 
what  is  much  the  same  thing,  tropical — sympathy 
with  and  study  of  the  simple  and  unlettered,  those 
who  are  the  improvident  slaves  of  fate,  thoughtless 
impulse  or  heedless  desire.  To  them,  as  we  shall  see, 
Hearn's  mind  turned  more  and  more.  His  was 
essentially  an  Oriental  mind  and  heart,  an  exotic 
weed  (and  weeds  may  become  the  loveliest  of 
flowers)  dropped  by  some  migrating  bird  upon  the 
strange  crabbed  soil  of  the  crudest  of  Occidentalism. 
Never  did  Hearn  stop  yearning  for  the  warmth,  the 
fatalism  and  the  laziness  of  tropic  semi-barbarism. 
The  gruesome  was  not  being  killed,  but  was  being 
modified  and  tamed  by  civilization. 

Hearn  had  been  discharged  from  the  Commercial, 
where  his  salary  was  $25  a  week,  "on  an  ethical  point 
of  policy  which  need  not  be  discussed  here.  The 
Commercial  took  him  on  at  $22."  Judge  M.  F. 
Wilson,  of  Cincinnati,  tells  me  that  his  discharge 
was  caused  by  his  seeking  a  license  for  and  an  open 
marriage  with  a  colored  woman.  The  license  was 
refused,  because  illegal  at  that  time.  The  law  was 
repealed  alittle  later.  The  marriage  did  not  take  place.1 

*Mr.  George  Mortimer  Roe,  at  that  time  a  friend  of  Hearn, 
now  living  at  Long  Beach,  California,  writes  me:  "Hearn  was 
quite  persistent  in  his  efforts  to  persuade  me  to  assist  him  in 
getting  the  license,  but  I  told  him  I  could  not  aid  him  in  his 
ambition  to  be  guilty  of  miscegenation.  For  many  years  we 
had  been  the  best  of  friends,  but  from  that  time  on  he  always 
avoided  me,  scarcely  speaking  to  me  if  by  accident  we  did  meet." 


50  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Mr.  Henderson  continues  thus: 

"As  Hearn  advanced  in  his  power  to  write,  the 
sense  of  the  discomforts  of  his  situation  in  Cincinnati 
grew  upon  him.  His  body  and  mind  longed  for  the 
congeniality  of  southern  air  and  scenes.  One  morn- 
ing, after  the  usual  hard  work  of  an  unusually  nasty 
winter  night  in  Cincinnati,  in  a  leisure  hour  of  con- 
versation, he  heard  an  associate  on  the  paper  describe 
a  scene  in  a  Gulf  State.  It  was  something  about  a 
grand  old  mansion  of  an  antebellum  cotton  prince, 
with  its  great  white  columns,  its  beautiful  private 
drive  down  to  the  public  road,  whitewashed  negro- 
quarters  stretching  away  in  the  background,  in  the 
distance  some  cypress  and  live-oaks  and  Spanish 
moss,  and  close  by  a  grove  of  magnolias  with  their 
delightful  odors  and  the  melody  of  mocking  birds  in 
the  early  sunlight.  Hearn  took  in  every  word  of 
this,  though  he  had  little  to  say  at  the  time,  with 
great  keenness  of  interest,  as  shown  by  the  dilation 
of  his  nostrils.  It  was  as  though  he  could  see  and 
hear  and  smell  the  delights  of  the  scene.  Not  long 
after  this,  on  leaving  Cincinnati  for  New  Orleans  he 
remarked:  'I  have  lost  my  loyalty  to  this  paper,  and 
change  was  inevitable.  Perhaps  it  isn't  so  much  the 
lack  of  opportunity  here  or  a  lack  of  appreciation  of 
associations  as  this  beastly  climate.  I  seem  to  shrivel 
up  in  this  alternation  of  dampness,  heat,  and  cold.  I 
had  to  go  sooner  or  later,  but  it  was  your  description 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  51 

of  the  sunlight  and  melodies  and  fragrance  and  all 
the  delights  with  which  the  South  appeals  to  the 
senses  that  determined  me.  I  shall  feel  better  in  the 
South  and  I  believe  I  shall  do  better.' ' 

Some  of  his  Cincinnati  acquaintances  speak  of  his 
obsequious,  even  fawning,  manner  ("timid  and  feline 
of  approach,"  says  Henderson),  of  his  "washing  his 
hands  with  invisible  water" — characteristics  not 
dictated  by  the  parentage  ascribed  to  him,  not  con- 
sonant with  his  photographs  and  not  wholly  with 
his  gruesome  traits.  He  wore  heavy  myopic  specta- 
cles at  this  time,  not  to  see  (because  they  were  wholly 
discarded  later),  but  probably  in  order  not  to  be 
seen — i.  e.,  to  hide  the  double  deformity  of  his  eyes. 
One  must  remember  that  with  or  without  spectacles  the 
world  a  foot  or  two  away  was  much  of  a  mystery  to 
Hearn,  and  that  one  fears  a  surely  existent  and  near- 
by mystery.  One  approaches  it  or  comes  within  its 
power  with  doubt,  dislike  and  caution.  The  play  of 
facial  expression  was  not  to  be  seen  by  Hearn.  All 
Uriah  Heeps  may  not  be  myopic,  but  all  highly 
myopic  persons  will  have  slow,  stealthy,  careful,  even 
catlike  attitudes  and  manners;  every  step  they 
take  must  be  done  with  hesitation,  bowed  head  and 
great  care,  in  order  not  to  fall  or  stumble  against 
something.  The  wholly  blind  walk  with  more  de- 
cision and  quickness.  Of  course  this  slow,  soft  care- 
fulness of  manner,  "the  velvet  feline  step,"  was 


52  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Hearn's  all  his  life.  It  followed  inexorably  that, 
though  possessed  of  a  healthy  and  athletic  body  there 
was  possible  for  him  no  athletics  which  required 
accuracy  of  sight  or  sequent  precision  and  celerity 
of  movement.  That  with  good  eyes  he  would  have 
been  an  utterly  different  man  in  character  and  in 
literature,  is  as  certain  as  that  he  would  have  had  a 
very  different  manner,  movement  and  style  of  physi- 
cal existence.  With  good  eyes  he  would  have  been 
strong,  athletic,  bold,  as  is  admirably  illustrated  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  single  sport  in  which  little  vision 
was  required — swimming,  he  was  most  expert,  and 
that  he  enjoyed  this  exercise  to  the  fullest  degree. 

To  scale  a  steeple  in  order  to  describe  the  city 
from  that  unusual  point  of  view  was  a  task  worthy 
of  yellow  journalism  which  cared  little  for  accuracy 
but  much  for  "scare"  headlines.  Hearn  saw  little  or 
nothing  of  the  city,  of  course. 

The  only  letters  written  during  the  Cincinnati 
period,  known  to  exist,  are  those  of  1876,  called, 
"Letters  to  a  Lady,"  published  in  the  volume,  Letters 
from  the  Raven,  Milton  Bronner,  editor.1  One  other 
work,  the  origins  of  which  date  from  this  period,  is, 
"One  of  Cleopatra's  Nights,"  and  with  this  is  demon- 
strated the  beginning  of  the  influence  of  the  modern 
French  school  of  story-writers.  Hearn  was  tiring  of 
the  worst  brutality  and  coarseness  of  Occidentalism, 

'Brentano's,  1907. 


The  Period  of  the  Gruesome  53 

and  seeking  a  way  to  the  true  home  of  his  mind.  The 
ghastly  must  become  the  ghostly.  The  Frenchman's 
art  was  to  become  his  half-way  house. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    NEW    ORLEANS    TIME 

I  HAVE  somewhere  read  of  a  nomad  child  of  the 
desert,  born  and  rocked  upon  a  camel,  who  was  ever 
thereafter  incapable  of  resting  more  than  a  day  in 
one  place.  Whether  or  not  the  wandering  father 
gave  the  homeless  son  his  illogical  spirit  of  unrest, 
matters  less  than  that  Hearn  had  it  to  a  morbid  de- 
gree. Any  place  rather  than  Cincinnati  would  have 
been  better  for  the  happiness  and  success  of  the 
emigrating  boy,  but  his  relatives  had  ridded  them- 
selves of  the  burden  by  assenting  to  his  wish.  Ex- 
cepting that  to  Japan,  the  only  sensible  move  he 
made  was  from  Cincinnati  toward  the  tropics,  to  the 
half-way  house  thither — New  Orleans.  The  desire 
to  seek  the  au  dela  was  present,  his  friends  tell  me, 
throughout  the  stay  in  Cincinnati.  Perhaps  the  single 
city  in  the  world  which  would  satisfy  his  dream  more 
nearly  than  could  any  other,  was  New  Orleans. 
Being  psychologically  for  the  most  part  of  degenerate 
Latin  stock,  and  especially  of  the  French  variety, 
with  the  requisite  admixture  of  exotic  and  tropical 
barbarism  •  bathed,  but  not  cooked,  in  the  hot  and 
brilliant  sunshine  he  loved  and  hated;  touched  and 
energized  by  too  little  Teutonic  blood  and  influence, 
New  Orleans  offered  to  the  unhappy  man  the 

54 


The  New  Orleans  Time  55 

best  possible  surroundings  for  the  growth  of  his 
talents.  Adding  to  this  fortunate  consensus  of  cir- 
cumstance and  partly  a  corollary  of  it  was  the  most 
fortunate  of  all  accidents  that  could  have  occurred  to 
him — that  is,  the  existence  of  a  daily  newspaper  such 
as  the  Times-Democrat;  of  a  paying  mass  of  sub- 
scribers relishing  Hearn's  translations  from  the  most 
artistic  French  writers  of  the  short-story;  and,  most 
important  of  all,  the  presence  on  the  bridge  of  the 
noble  Captain  of  the  Newspaper  enterprise,  the 
veteran  editor,  Mr.  Page  M.  Baker.  One  shudders 
to  think  what  would  have  been  Hearn's  later  career 
had  it  not  been  for  the  guidance  and  help  of  this 
wise,  sympathetic  and  magnanimous  friend.  For  the 
one  thing  needed  by  Hearn  in  those  who  would  be 
his  friends  rather  than  their  own,  was  magnanimity. 
It  was  his  frequent  misfortune  in  life  to  come 
under  the  influence  of  those  as  incapable  of  true  un- 
selfishness and  real  kindness  as  it  was  natural  for 
them  to  be  cunning  and  to  use  an  assumed  friend- 
ship for  hidden  flatteries  and  purposes  of  their  own. 
Most  of  these  would  not  have  dreamed  of  associating 
with  the  man  for  any  reason  other  than  to  stand  in 
the  reflected  light  of  his  literary  fame.  Most  of 
them  had  as  little  care  for  his  poetic  prose,  and  as 
little  appreciation  or  knowledge  of  good  literature  as 
they  had  of  "the  enclitic  de."  They  had  no  magna- 
nimity, only  wile  instead  of  it.  As  Hearn  was  also 


56  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

deprived  of  large-mindedness  in  all  affairs  of  the 
world,  he  was  unhappily  prone  to  accept  the  offered 
bribe.  He  wanted  above  all  things  to  be  nattered 
and  to  do  as  his  imperious  impulses  and  weak  will 
suggested.  Any  one  who  recognized  these  things  in 
him  and  seconded  the  follies,  remained  his  permitted 
"friend,"  but  those  who  withstood  them  in  the  least 
and  ran  counter  to  his  morbid  trends  and  resolves — 
these  were  speedily  "dropped,"  and  insulted  or 
grieved  to  silence.  If  they  had  magnanimity,  they 
bore  with  the  man  in  pity  and  answered  his  insults 
with  kind  words  and  kinder  deeds.  They  recognized 
that  they  were  responsible  not  to  the  man  but  to  the 
carrier  of  a  great  talent,  and  although  they  might 
not  forget,  they  gladly  forgave,  if  possibly  they 
might  speed  him  on  his  predestined  way. 

Of  this  nuirber  was  Baker.  Directly  or  indirectly 
through  him,  came  a  long  and  happy  period  of  life; 
came  the  congenial,  educating  work,  without  slavery, 
of  the  translations  and  other  easy  reportorial  serv- 
ices. Of  equal  importance  were  the  financial  re- 
wards. Before  and  after  the  New  Orleans  time  not 
the  least  of  Hearn's  misfortunes  was  his  intolerable 
and  brutalizing  improvidence  and  impecuniousness. 
Under  Baker's  friendship  he  came  to  what  for  such  a 
person  was  affluence  and  independence.  He  found 
leisure  to  read  and  study  and  think  outside  of  the 
journalistic  pale,  and  better  still,  perhaps, — better  to 


The  New  Orleans  Time  57 

his  thinking  at  least — he  secured  the  means  to  in- 
dulge his  life-long  desire  for  curious  and  out-of-the- 
way  books.  During  this  time  it  grew  to  conscious- 
ness with  him  that  in  everything,  except  as  regards 
his  beloved  Art,  he  had  a  little  learned  to  recognize 
the  worth  of  money. 

But  within  him  grew  ever  stronger  the  plague  of 
the  unsatisfied,  the  sting  of  unrest,  and  he  was  com- 
pelled to  obey.  In  a  letter  to  me  from  Martinique, 
after  he  had  recognized  his  mistake,  he  admits  and 
explains  as  follows: 

I  seldom  have  a  chance  now  to  read  or  speak  English; 
and  English  phrases  that  used  to  seem  absolutely  natural 
already  begin  to  look  somewhat  odd  to  me.  Were  I  to 
continue  to  live  here  for  some  years  more,  I  am  almost 
sure  that  I  should  find  it  difficult  to  write  English.  The 
resources  of  the  intellectual  life  are  all  lacking  here, — no 
libraries,  no  books  in  any  language; — a  mind  accustomed 
to  discipline  becomes  like  a  garden  long  uncultivated,  in 
which  the  rare  flowers  return  to  their  primitive  savage 
forms,  or  are  smothered  by  rank,  tough  growths  which 
ought  to  be  pulled  lip  and  thrown  away.  Nature  does 
not  allow  you  to  think  here,  or  to  study  seriously,  or  to 
work  earnestly:  revolt  against  her,  and  with  one  subtle 
touch  of  fever  she  leaves  you  helpless  and  thoughtless 
for  months. 

But  she  is  so  beautiful,  nevertheless,  that  you  love  her 
more  and  more  daily, — that  you  gradually  cease  to  wish 
to  do  aught  contrary  to  her  local  laws  and  customs. 
Slowly,  you  begin  to  lose  all  affection  for  the  great 


58  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


Northern  nurse  that  taught  you  to  think,  to  work,  to 
aspire.  Then,  after  a  while,  this  nude,  warm,  savage, 
amorous  Southern  Nature  succeeds  in  persuading  you  that 
labor  and  effort  and  purpose  are  foolish  things, — that 
life  is  very  sweet  without  them; — and  you  actually  find 
yourself  ready  to  confess  that  the  aspirations  and  inspir- 
ations born  of  the  struggle  for  life  in  the  North  are  all 
madness, — that  they  wasted  years  which  might  have  been 
delightfully  dozed  away  in  a  land  where  the  air  is  always 
warm,  the  sea  always  the  color  of  sapphire,  the  woods 
perpetually  green  as  the  plumage  of  a  green  parrot. 

I  must  confess  I  have  had  some  such  experiences.  It 
appears  to  me  impossible  to  resign  myself  to  living  again 
in  a  great  city  and  in  a  cold  climate.  Of  course  I  shall 
have  to  return  to  the  States  for  a  while, — a  short  while, 
probably; — but  I  do  not  think  I  will  ever  settle  there.  I 
am  apt  to  become  tired  of  places, — or  at  least  of  the  dis- 
agreeable facts  attaching  more  or  less  to  all  places  and 
becoming  more  and  more  marked  and  unendurable  the 
longer  one  stays.  So  that  ultimately  I  am  sure  to  wander 
off  somewhere  else.  You  can  comprehend  how  one  becomes 
tired  of  the  very  stones  of  a  place, — the  odors,  the  colors, 
the  shapes  of  Shadows,  and  the  tint  of  its  sky; — and  how 
small  irritations  become  colossal  and  crushing  by  years 
of  repetition; — yet  perhaps  you  will  not  comprehend  that 
one  can  become  weary  of  a  whole  system  of  life,  of  civ- 
ilization, even  with  very  limited  experience.  Such  is  ex- 
actly my  present  feeling, — an  unutterable  weariness  of 
the  aggressive  characteristics  of  existence  in  a  highly  or- 
ganized society.  The  higher  the  social  development,  the 
sharper  the  struggle.  One  feels  this  especially  in  America, 
— in  the  nervous  centers  of  the  world's  activity.  One 
feels  it  least,  I  imagine,  in  the  tropics,  where  it  is  such 


The  New  Orleans  Time  59 


an  effort  just  to  live,  that  one  has  no  force  left  for  the 
effort  to  expand  one's  own  individuality  at  the  cost  of 
another's.  I  clearly  perceive  that  a  man  enamoured  of 
the  tropics  has  but  two  things  to  do : — To  abandon  intel- 
lectual work,  or  to  conquer  the  fascination  of  Nature. 
Which  I  will  do  will  depend  upon  necessity.  I  would 
remain  in  this  zone  if  I  could  maintain  a  certain  position 
here; — to  keep  it  requires  means.  I  can  earn  only  by 
writing,  and  yet  if  I  remain  a  few  years  more,  I  will  have 
become  (perhaps?)  unable  to  write.  So  if  I  am  to  live 
in  the  tropics,  as  I  would  like  to  do,  I  must  earn  the  means 
for  it  in  very  short  order. 

I  gave  up  journalism  altogether  after  leaving  N.  0.  I 
went  to  Demerara  and  visited  the  lesser  West  Indies  in 
July  and  August  of  last  year, — returned  to  New  York 
after  three  months  with  some  MS.,: — sold  it, — felt  very 
unhappy  at  the  idea  of  staying  in  New  York,  where  I 
had  good  offers, — suddenly  made  up  my  mind  to  go  back 
to  the  tropics  by  the  same  steamer  that  had  brought  me. 
I  had  no  commission,  resolved  to  trust  to  magazine-work. 
So  far  I  have  just  been  able  to  scrape  along ; — the  climate 
numbs  mental  life,  and  the  inspirations  I  hoped  for  won 't 
come.  The  real — surpassing  imagination — whelms  the 
ideal  out  of  sight  and  hearing.  The  world  is  young  here, — 
not  old  and  wise  and  grey  as  in  the  North;  and  one  must 
not  seek  the  Holy  Ghost  in  it.  I  suspect  that  the  ma- 
terial furnished  by  the  tropics  can  only  be  utilized  in  a 
Northern  atmosphere.  We  will  talk  about  it  together. 

That  he  never  thought  to  return  to  New  Orleans 
is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  when  he  left,  he 
shipped  his  books  to  another  good  friend  and  great 
editor,  Mr.  Alden,  to  keep  for  him.  When  he  came 


60  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

to  the  United  States  in  1889,  he  fully  intended  re- 
turning to  some  tropical  land.  But  it  was  otherwise 
ordered,  and  most  fortunately,  for  a  year  or  two 
more  of  life  under  such  conditions  would  have  killed 
both  mind  and  body. 

Upon  Hearn's  arrival  in  New  Orleans,  he  began 
sending  a  series  of  charming  letters  to  the  Cincinnati 
Commercialj  signed  "Ozias  Midwinter."  *  They  are, 
indeed,  exquisite,  and  as  certainly  of  a  delicacy  and 
beauty  which  must  have  made  the  reader  of  that  time 
and  newspaper  wonder  what  strange  sort  of  a  cor- 
respondent the  editor  had  secured.  The  first  letter 
was  about  Memphis,  passed  on  his  way  South.  I 
cite  some  parts  to  show  how  the  gruesome  was  merg- 
ing into  or  being  supplanted  by  something  larger 
and  better,  and  also  to  illustrate  Hearn's  growing  in- 
terest in  colors. 

The  stranger,  however,  is  apt  to  leave  Memphis  with 
one  charming  recollection  of  the  place — the  remembrance 
of  the  sunset  scene  from  the  bluffs  across  the  river  over 
Arkansas.  I  do  not  think  that  any  part  of  the  world  can 
offer  a  more  unspeakably  beautiful  spectacle  to  the 
traveler  than  what  he  may  witness  any  fair  evening  from 
those  rugged  old  bluffs  at  Memphis.  The  first  time  I  saw 
it  the  day  had  been  perfectly  bright  and  clear, — the  blue 
of  the  sky  was  unclouded  by  the  least  fleecy  stain  of  white 
cloud;  and  the  sun  descended  in  the  west, — not  in  a  yel- 

*Kindly  secured  by  Mr.  Alexander  Hill,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
from  a  friend  and  lent  to  me. 


The  New  Orleans  Time  61 


low  haze,  or  a  crimson  fog,  but  with  the  splendor  of  his 
fiery  glory  almost  undimmed.  He  seemed  to  leave  no 
trace  of  his  bright  fires  behind  him;  and  the  sky-blue 
began  to  darken  into  night-purple  from  the  east  almost 
immediately.  I  thought  at  first  it  was  one  of  the  least 
romantic  sunsets  I  had  ever  seen.  It  was  not  until  the 
stars  were  out,  and  the  night  had  actually  fallen,  that 
I  beheld  the  imperial  magnificence  of  that  sunset. 
****** 

I  once  thought,  when  sailing  up  the  Ohio  one  bright 
Northern  summer,  that  the  world  held  nothing  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  scenery  of  the  Beautiful  River, — those 
voluptuous  hills  with  their  sweet  feminine  curves,  the 
elfin  gold  of  that  summer  haze,  and  the  pale  emerald  of 
the  river 's  verdure-reflecting  breast.  But  even  the  loveli- 
ness of  the  Ohio  seemed  faded,  and  the  Northern  sky- 
blue  palely  cold,  like  the  tint  of  iceberg  pinnacles,  when 
I  beheld  for  the  first  time  the  splendor  of  the  Mississippi. 

"You  must  come  on  deck  early  to-morrow,"  said  the 
kind  Captain  of  the  Thompson  Dean;  "we  are  entering 
the  Sugar  Country." 

So  I  saw  the  sun  rise  over  the  cane-fields  of  Louisiana. 

It  rose  with  a  splendor  that  recalled  the  manner  of  its 
setting  at  Memphis,  but  of  another  color; — an  auroral 
flush  of  pale  gold  and  pale  green  bloomed  over  the  long 
fringe  of  cottonwood  and  cypress  trees,  and  broadened 
and  lengthened  half-way  round  the  brightening  world. 
The  glow  seemed  tropical,  with  the  deep  green  of  the 
trees  sharply  cutting  against  it;  and  one  naturally  looked 
for  the  feathery  crests  of  cocoanut  palms.  Then  the  day 
broke  gently  and  slowly, — a  day  too  vast  for  a  rapid 
dawn, — a  day  that  seemed  deep  as  Space.  I  thought  our 
Northern  sky  narrow  and  cramped  as  a  vaulted  church- 


62  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

roof  beside  that  sky, — a  sky  so  softly  beautiful,  so  purely 
clear  in  its  immensity,  that  it  made  one  dream  of  the 
tenderness  of  a  woman's  eyes  made  infinite. 

And  the  giant  river  broadened  to  a  mile, — smooth  as  a 
mirror,  still  and  profound  as  a  mountain  lake.  Between 
the  vastness  of  the  sky  and  the  vastness  of  the  stream, 
we  seemed  moving  suspended  in  the  midst  of  day,  with 
only  a  long,  narrow  tongue  of  land  on  either  side  break- 
ing the  brightness.  Yet  the  horizon  never  became  wholly 
blue.  The  green-golden  glow  lived  there  all  through  the 
day;  it  was  brightest  in  the  south.  It  was  so  tropical, 
that  glow; — it  seemed  of  the  Pacific,  a  glow  that  forms 
a  background  to  the  sight  of  lagoons  and  coral  reefs  and 
' '  lands  where  it  is  always  afternoon. ' ' 

Below  this  glow  gleamed  another  golden  green,  the 
glory  of  the  waving  cane-fields  beyond  the  trees.  Huge 
sugar-mills  were  breathing  white  and  black  clouds  into 
the  sky,  as  they  masticated  their  mighty  meal;  and  the 
smell  of  saccharine  sweetness  floated  to  us  from  either 
shore.  Then  we  glided  by  miles  of  cotton-fields  with 
their  fluttering  white  bolls;  and  by  the  mouths  of  broad 
bayous; — past  swamps  dark  with  cypress  gloom,  where 
the  gray  alligator  dwells,  and  the  gray  Spanish  moss 
hangs  in  elfish  festoons  from  ancient  trees ; — past  orange- 
trees  and  live-oaks,  pecans  and  cottonwoods  andv  broad- 
leaved  bananas;  while  the  green  of  the  landscape  ever 
varied,  from  a  green  so  dark  that  it  seemed  tinged  with 
blue  to  an  emerald  so  bright  that  it  seemed  shot  through 
with  gold.  The  magnificent  old  mansions  of  the  Southern 
planters,  built  after  a  generous  fashion  unknown  in  the 
North,  with  broad  verandas  and  deliciously  cool  porches, 
and  all  painted  white  or  perhaps  a  pale  yellow,  looked 
out  grandly  across  the  water  from  the  hearts  of  shadowy 


The  New  Orleans  Time  63 


groves;  and,  like  villages  of  a  hundred  cottages,  the 
negro  quarters  dotted  the  verdant  face  of  the  plantation 
with  far-gleaming  points  of  snowy  whiteness. 

And  still  that  wondrous  glow  brightened  in  the  south, 
like  a  far-off  reflection  of  sunlight  on  the  Spanish  Main. 

' '  But  it  does  not  look  now  as  it  used  to  in  the  old  slave 
days, ' '  said  the  pilot,  as  he  turned  the  great  wheel.  l '  The 
swamps  were  drained,  and  the  plantations  were  not  over- 
grown with  cottonwood;  and  somehow  or  other  the  banks 
usen  't  to  cave  in  then  as  they  do  now. ' ' 

I  saw  indeed  signs  of  sad  ruin  on  the  face  of  the  great 
plantations;  there  were  splendid  houses  crumbling  to  de- 
cay, and  whole  towns  of  tenantless  cabins;  estates  of  im- 
mense extent  were  lying  almost  untilled,  or  with  only  a 
few  acres  under  cultivation;  and  the  vigorous  cottonwood 
trees  had  shot  up  in  whole  forests  over  fields  once  made 
fertile  by  the  labor  of  ten  thousand  slaves.  The  scene 
was  not  without  its  melancholy;  it  seemed  tinged  by  the 
reflection  of  a  glory  passed  away — the  glory  of  wealth, 
and  the  magnificence  of  wealth ;  of  riches  and  the  luxury 
of  riches. 

0  fair  paradise  of  the  South,  if  still  so  lovely  in  thy 
ruin,  what  must  thou  have  been  in  the  great  day  of  thy 
greatest  glory! 

White  steamboats,  heavily  panting  under  their  loads  of 
cotton,  came  toiling  by,  and  called  out  to  us  wild  greeting 
long  and  shrill,  until  the  pilot  opened  the  lips  of  our 
giant  boat,  and  her  mighty  challenge  awoke  a  thousand 
phantom  voices  along  the  winding  shore.  Red  sank  the 
sun  in  a  sea  of  fire,  and  bronze-hued  clouds  piled  up 
against  the  light,  like  fairy  islands  in  a  sea  of  glory,  such 
as  were  seen,  perhaps,  by  the  Adelantado  of  the  Seven 
Cities. 


64  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"Those  are  not  real  clouds, "  said  the  pilot,  turning 
to  the  west,  his  face  aglow  with  the  yellow  light.  ' l  Those 
are  only  smoke  clouds  rising  from  the  sugar  mills  of 
Louisiana,  and  drifting  with  the  evening  wind. ' J 

The  daylight  died  away  and  the  stars  came  out,  but 
that  warm  glow  in  the  southern  horizon  only  paled,  so 
that  it  seemed  a  little  further  off.  The  river  broadened 
till  it  looked  with  the  tropical  verdure  of  its  banks  like 
the  Ganges,  until  at  last  there  loomed  up  a  vast  line  of 
shadows,  dotted  with  points  of  light,  and  through  a  forest 
of  masts  and  a  host  of  phantom-white  river  boats  and  a 
wilderness  of  chimneys  the  Thompson  Dean,  singing  her 
cheery  challenge,  steamed  up  to  the  mighty  levee  of  New 
Orleans. 

The  letters  descriptive  of  New  Orleans  scenes  and 
life  deserve  republishing  had  I  space  for  them  here. 
In  a  brief  paragraph,  a  sentence  perhaps,  almost  in 
a  word,  is  given  the  photograph,  chromatic  and 
vitalized  in  Hearn's  unrivalled  picturesque  style,  of 
the  levees,  the  shipping,  the  sugar  landing,  the  cot- 
ton-shipping, the  ocean  steamers,  the  strange  mixture 
of  peoples  from  all  countries  and  climes;  the  archi- 
tecture, streets,  markets,  etc.  The  Vendetta  of  the 
Sicilian  immigrants  is  described  with  a  strength  and 
vividness  which  bear  eloquent  witness  to  Hearn's 
innate  pleasure  in  such  themes.  There  is  also  shown 
his  beginning  the  study  of  Creole  character,  gram- 
mar, and  language.  A  peculiarly  striking  picture  is 
painted  of  the  new  huge  cotton-press,  as  a  monster 
whose  jaws  open  with  a  low  roar  to  devour  the 


LAFCADIO    IIEARN 
From  a  photoc/rapli  taken  during   the  New   Orleans   Period 


The  New  Orleans  Time  65 

immense  bale  of  cotton  and  to  crush,  it  to  a  few  inches 
of  thickness.    I  cannot  exclude  this  excerpt: 

Do  you  remember  that  charming  little  story,  "Pere 
Antoine 's  Date-Palm,"  written  by  Thomas  Bailey  Aid- 
rich,  and  published  in  the  same  volume  with  "Marjorie 
Daw"  and  other  tales? 

Pere  Antoine  was  a  good  old  French  priest,  who  lived 
and  died  in  New  Orleans.  As  a  boy,  he  conceived  a 
strong  friendship  for  a  fellow  student  of  about  his  own 
age,  who,  in  after  years,  sailed  to  some  tropical  island 
in  the  Southern  Seas,  and  wedded  some  darkly  beautiful 
woman,  graceful  and  shapely  and  tall  as  a  feathery  palm. 
Pere  Antoine  wrote  often  to  his  friend,  and  their  friend- 
ship strengthened  with  the  years,  until  death  dissolved  it. 
The  young  colonist  died,  and  his  beautiful  wife  also 
passed  from  the  world ;  but  they  left  a  little  daughter  for 
some  one  to  take  care  of. 

The  good  priest,  of  course,  took  care  of  her,  and  brought 
her  up  at  New  Orleans.  And  she  grew  up  graceful  and 
comely  as  her  mother,  with  all  the  wild  beauty  of  the 
South.  But  the  child  could  not  forget  the  glory  of  the 
tropics,  the  bright  lagoon,  the  white-crested  sea  roaring 
over  the  coral  reef,  the  royal  green  of  the  waving  palms, 
and  the  beauty  of  the  golden-feathered  birds  that  chat- 
tered among  them. 

So  she  pined  for  the  tall  palms  and  the  bright  sea  and 
the  wild  reef,  until  there  came  upon  her  that  strange 
homesickness  which  is  death;  and  still  dreaming  of  the 
beautiful  palms,  she  gradually  passed  into  that  great 
sleep  which  is  dreamless.  And  she  was  buried  by  Pere 
Antoine  near  his  own  home. 

By  and  by,  above  the  little  mound  there  suddenly  came 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


a  gleam  of  green;  and  mysteriously,  slowly,  beautifully, 
there  grew  up  towering  in  tropical  grace  above  the  grave, 
a  princely  palm.  And  the  old  priest  knew  that  it  had 
grown  from  the  heart  of  the  dead  child. 

So  the  years  passed  by,  and  the  roaring  city  grew  up 
about  the  priest's  home  and  the  palm-tree,  trying  to 
push  Pere  Antoine  off  his  land.  But  he  would  not  be 
moved.  They  piled  up  gold  upon  his  doorsteps  and  he 
laughed  at  them;  they  went  to  law  with  him  and  he  beat 
them  all;  and,  at  last,  dying,  he  passed  away  true  to  his 
trust;  for  the  man  who  cuts  down  that  palm-tree  loses 
the  land  that  it  grows  upon. 

"And  there  it  stands,"  says  the  Poet,  "in  the  narrow, 
dingy  street,  a  beautiful  dreamy  stranger,  an  exquisite 
foreign  lady,  whose  grace  is  a  joy  to  the  eye,  the  incense 
of  whose  breath  makes  the  air  enamoured.  May  the  hand 
wither  that  touches  her  ungently!" 

Now  I  was  desirous  above  all  things  to  visit  the  palm 
made  famous  by  this  charming  legend,  and  I  spent  sev- 
eral days  in  seeking  it.  I  visited  the  neighborhood  of  the 
old  Place  d'Armes — now  Jackson  Square — and  could  find 
no  trace  of  it;  then  I  visited  the  southern  quarter  of  the 
city,  with  its  numberless  gardens,  and  I  sought  for  the 
palm  among  groves  of  orange-trees  overloaded  with  their 
golden  fruit,  amid  broad-leaved  bananas,  and  dark  cy- 
presses, and  fragrant  magnolias  and  tropical  trees  of 
which  I  did  not  know  the  names.  Then  I  found  many 
date-palms.  Some  were  quite  young,  with  their  splendid 
crest  of  leafy  plumes  scarcely  two  feet  above  the  ground; 
others  stood  up  to  a  height  of  thirty  or  forty  feet.  When- 
ever I  saw  a  tall  palm,  I  rang  the  doorbell  and  asked  if 
that  were  Pere  Antoine 's  date-palm.  Alas!  nobody  had 
ever  heard  of  the  Pere  Antoine. 


The  New  Orleans  Time  67 


Then  I  visited  the  ancient  cathedral,  founded  by  the 
pious  Don  Andre  Almonaster,  Regidor  of  New  Orleans, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago;  and  I  asked  the  old 
French  priest  whether  they  had  ever  heard  of  the  Pere 
Antoine.  And  they  answered  me  that  they  knew  him  not, 
after  having  searched  the  ancient  archives  of  the  ancient 
Spanish  Cathedral. 

Once  I  found  a  magnificent  palm,  loaded  with  dates, 
in  a  garden  on  St.  Charles  Street,  so  graceful  that  I  felt 
the  full  beauty  of  Solomon 's  simile  as  I  had  never  felt  it 
before:  "Thy  stature  is  like  to  a  palm-tree. "  I  rang 
the  bell  and  made  inquiry  concerning  the  age  of  the  tree. 
It  was  but  twenty  years  old ;  and  I  went  forth  discouraged. 

At  last,  to  my  exceeding  joy,  I  found  an  informant  in 
the  person  of  a  good-natured  old  gentleman,  who  keeps  a 
quaint  bookstore  in  Commercial  Place.  The  tree  was  in- 
deed growing,  he  said,  in  New  Orleans  Street,  near  the 
French  Cathedral,  and  not  far  from  Congo  Square;  but 
there  were  many  legends  concerning  it.  Some  said  it  had 
been  planted  over  the  grave  of  some  Turk  or  Moor, — 
perhaps  a  fierce  corsair  from  Algiers  or  Tunis — who  died 
while  sailing  up  the  Mississippi,  and  was  buried  on  its 
moist  shores.  But  it  was  not  at  all  like  the  other  palm- 
trees  in  the  city,  nor  did  it  seem  to  him  to  be  a  date-palm. 
It  was  a  real  Oriental  palm ;  yea,  in  sooth,  such  a  palm  as 
Solomon  spake  of  in  his  Love-song  of  Love-songs. 

"I  said,  I  will  go  up  to  the  palm-tree;  I  will  take  hold 
of  the  boughs  thereof. "  .... 

I  found  it  standing  in  beautiful  loneliness  in  the  center 
of  a  dingy  woodshed  on  the  north  side  of  New  Orleans 
Street,  towering  about  forty  feet  above  the  rickety  plank 
fence  of  the  yard.  The  gateway  was  open,  and  a  sign 
swung  above  it  bearing  the  name,  ' '  M.  Michel,  ' '  I  walked 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


in  and  went  up  to  the  palm-tree.  A  laborer  was  sawing 
wood  in  the  back-shed,  and  I  saw  through  the  windows  of 
the  little  cottage  by  the  gate  a  family  at  dinner.  I 
knocked  at  the  cottage-door,  and  a  beautiful  Creole  woman 
opened  it. 

'  *  May  I  ask,  Madame,  whether  this  palm-tree  was  truly 
planted  by  the  Pere  Antoine?" 

"Ah,  Monsieur,  there  are  many  droll  stories  which  they 
relate  of  that  tree.  There  are  folks  who  say  that  a  young 
girl  was  interred  there,  and  it  is  also  said  that  a  Sultan 
was  buried  under  that  tree — or  the  son  of  a  Sultan.  And 
there  are  also  some  who  say  that  a  priest  planted  it. ' ' 

"Was  it  the  Pere  Antoine,  Madame?" 

"I  do  not  know,  Monsieur.  There  are  people  also  who 
say  that  it  was  planted  here  by  Indians  from  Florida. 
But  I  do  not  know  whether  such  trees  grow  in  Florida.  I 
have  never  seen  any  other  palm-tree  like  it.  It  is  not 
a  date-palm.  It  flowers  every  year,  with  a  beautiful 
yellow  blossom  the  color  of  straw,  and  the  blossoms  hang 
down  in  pretty  curves.  Oh,  it  is  very  graceful!  Some- 
times it  bears  fruit,  a  kind  of  oily  fruit,  but  not  dates. 
I  am  told  that  they  make  oil  from  the  fruit  of  such 
palms. ' ' 

I  thought  it  looked  so  sad,  that  beautiful  tree  in  the 
dusty  wood-yard,  with  no  living  green  thing  near  it.  As 
its  bright  verdant  leaves  waved  against  the  blue  above, 
one  could  not  but  pity  it  as  one  would  pity  some  being, 
fair  and  feminine  and  friendless  in  a  strange  land. 
"Oh,  c'est  bien  gracieux,"  murmured  the  handsome  Creole 
lady. 

"Is  it  true,  Madame,  that  the  owner  of  the  land  loses 
it  if  he  cuts  down  the  tree  f ' ' 

"Mais  oui!     But  the  proprietors  of  the  ground  have 


The  New  Orleans  Time  69 

always  respected  the  tree,  because  it  is  so  old,  so  very 
old!" 

Then  I  found  the  proprietor  of  the  land,  and  he  told 
me  that  when  the  French  troops  first  arrived  in  this  part 
of  the  country  they  noticed  that  tree.  "Why,"  I  ex- 
claimed, "that  must  have  beep  in  the  reign  of  Louis 
XIV!"  "It  was  in  1679,  I  believe,"  he  answered.  As 
for  the  Pere  Antoine,  he  had  never  heard  of  him.  Neither 
had  he  heard  of  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich.  So  that  I  de- 
parted, mourning  for  my  dead  faith  in  a  romance  which 
was  beautiful. 

Next  to  his  best  Japanese  studies,  I  suspect  it 
will  finally  come  to  recognition  that  Hearn's  greatest 
service  to  literature  is  his  magnificent  series  of 
translations  during  the  New  Orleans  years.  As  a 
translator  there  were  given  him  his  data  by  creative 
minds.  His  own  mental  equipment  prevented  crea- 
tion, and  his  clearly  set  limits  as  a  translator  added 
power  to  his  ability  and  function  as  a  colorist  and 
word-artist.  His  was  almost  a  unique  expertness  of 
entering  into  the  spirit  of  his  models,  refeeling  their 
emotions,  reimagining  their  thought  and  art,  and 
reclothing  it  with  the  often  somewhat  hard  and  stiff 
material  of  English  weaving.  All  of  their  spirit 
philologically  possible  to  be  conveyed  to  us,  we  may 
be  sure  he  re-presents.  For  his  was  the  rare  power 
of  the  instant,  the  iridescent,  the  winged  word.  I 
think  it  was  innate  and  spontaneous  with  him,  a  gift 
of  the  inscrutable,  illogic,  and  fantastically  generous- 


70  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

niggard  Fates.  All  his  studies  and  conscious  efforts 
were  almost  unavailing  either  to  hinder  or  to  further 
its  perfection.  If  to  Fate  we  may  not  be  grateful, 
\ye  can  at  least  thank  the  weird  lesser  gods  of  life  for 
the  mysterious  wonder  of  the  gift.  The  wealth  of 
loving  labor  silently  offered  in  the  187  or  more  trans- 
lations published  in  the  Times-Democrat  is  marvel- 
ous. Hearn  brought  to  my  house  the  loose  cuttings 
from  the  files,  and  we  got  them  into  some  order  in 
"scrapbooks."  But  the  dates  of  publication  and 
other  details  are  often  characteristically  wanting. 
Elsewhere  in  the  present  volume  the  titles,  etc.,  of 
the  stories  are  listed.  Preceded  by  those  of  "One  of 
Cleopatra's  Nights,"  they  form  a  body  of  literary 
values  which  should  be  rescued  from  the  newspaper 
files  and  permanently  issued  in  book-form  for  the 
pleasure  and  instruction  of  English  readers.  To  do 
this  I  have  most  generously  been  given  permission 
by  Hearn's  ever  helpful  and  discriminating  friend, 
Mr.  Page  M.  Baker,  editor  of  the  Times-Democrat. 

Hearn  knew  well  the  difficulties  of  the  translator's 
art.  "One  who  translates  for  the  love  of  the  original 
will  probably  have  no  reward  save  the  satisfaction  of 
creating  something  beautiful  and  perhaps  of  saving 
a  masterpiece  from  less  reverent  hands."  So  anxious 
was  he  to  do  such  work  that  he  was  willing  to  pay 
the  publication  expenses.  As  pertinent,  I  copy  an 
editorial  of  his  on  the  subject,  which  was  published  in 


The  New  Orleans  Time  71 

the  Times-Democrat,  during  the  period  in  which  he 
was  so  busy  as  a  translator: 

The  New  York  Nation  has  been  publishing  in  its 
columns  a  number  of  interesting  and  severe  criticisms 
upon  translations  from  foreign  authors.  These  trans- 
lations are  generally  condemned,  and  with  good  specifi- 
cations of  reasons, — notwithstanding  the  fact  that  some 
of  them  have  been  executed  by  persons  who  have  obtained 
quite  a  popular  reputation  as  translators.  One  critic 
dwells  very  strongly  upon  the  most  remarkable  weakness 
of  all  the  renderings  in  question; — they  invariably  fail 
to  convey  the  color  and  grace  of  the  original,  even  when 
the  meaning  is  otherwise  preserved.  Speaking  of  the 
translators  themselves,  the  reviewer  observes:  " There 
is  not  one  artist  among  them." 

All  this  is  very  true;  but  the  writer  does  not  explain 
the  causes  of  this  state  of  affairs.  They  are  many,  no 
doubt; — the  principal  fact  for  consideration  being  that 
there  is  no  demand  for  artistic  work  in  translation.  And 
there  is  no  demand  for  it,  not  so  much  because  it  is  rare 
and  unlikely  to  be  appreciated  as  because  it  is  dear. 
Artistic  translators  cannot  afford  to  work  for  a  song, — 
neither  would  they  attempt  to  translate  a  five-hundred- 
page  novel  in  three  weeks  or  a  month  as  others  do.  Again, 
artistic  translators  would  not  care  to  attach  their  names 
to  the  published  translation  of  a  fourth-  or  fifth-class 
popular  novel.  Finally,  artistic  translations  do  not  ob- 
tain a  ready  market  with  first-class  American  publishers, 
who,  indeed,  seldom  touch  domestic  translations  of  foreign 
fiction,  and  depend  for  their  translations  of  European  lit- 
erature upon  transatlantic  enterprise.  Thus  the  artistic 
translator  may  be  said  to  have  no  field.  He  may  sell  his 


72  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

work  to  some  petty  publisher,  perhaps,  but  only  at  a  price 
that  were  almost  absurd  to  mention; —  and  the  first-class 
publishers  do  not  care  to  speculate  in  American  transla- 
tions at  all.  We  might  also  add  that  the  translator's 
task  is  always  a  thankless  one, — that  however  superb  and 
laborious  his  execution,  it  can  never  obtain  much  public 
notice,  nor  even  so  much  as  public  comprehension.  The 
original  author  will  be  admired, — the  translator  unnoticed, 
except  by  a  few  critics. 

Moreover,  the  men  capable  of  making  the  most  artistic 
translations  are  usually  better  employed.  The  translator 
of  a  great  French,  German,  or  Italian  masterpiece  of 
style,  ought,  in  the  eternal  fitness  of  things,  to  be  a  man 
able  to  write  something  very  artistic  in  his  own  tongue. 
No  one  seems  to  doubt  that  Longfellow  was  the  man  to 
translate  Dante, — that  Tennyson  could  parallel  Homer 
(as  he  has  shown  by  a  wonderful  effort)  in  the  nineteenth- 
century  English, — that  Carlyle  re-created  Goethe's 
"Wilhelm  Meister"  by  his  rendering  of  it, — that  Austin 
Dobson  was  the  first  to  teach  English  readers  some  of  the 
beauties  of  Gautier  's  poetry, — that  Swinburne  alone  could 
have  made  Francois  Villon  adopt  an  English  garb  which 
exactly  fitted  him.  But  the  same  readers  perhaps  never 
gave  a  thought  to  the  fact  that  the  works  of  Flaubert,  of 
Daudet,  of  Droz,  of  Hugo,  of  at  least  a  score  of  other 
European  writers,  call  for  work  of  an  almost  equally  high 
class  on  the  part  of  the  translator,  and  never  receive  it! 
What  a  translation  of  Daudet  could  not  Henry  James 
give  us? — how  admirably  John  Addington  Symonds  could 
reproduce  for  us  the  Venetian  richness  of  Paul  de  Saint 
Victor 's  style !  But  suah  men  are  not  likely  to  be  invited, 
on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  to  do  such  work; — neither 
are  they  likely  to  do  it  as  a  labor  of  love!  A  splendid 


The  New  Orleans  Time  73 


translation  of  Flaubert  might  be  expected  from  several 
members  of  what  is  called  "The  New  England  School;" 
but  what  Boston  publisher  would  engage  his  favorite  lit- 
erary man  in  such  pursuits  ?  It  is  really  doubtful  whether 
the  men  most  capable  of  making  artistic  translations 
could  afford,  under  any  ordinary  circumstances,  to  under- 
take much  work  of  the  kind,  except  as  a  literary  recrea- 
tion. At  all  events,  the  English-reading  world  cannot 
hereafter  expect  to  obtain  its  translations  from  other 
European  languages  through  the  labor  of  the  best  writers 
in  its  own.  The  only  hope  is,  that  the  recklessness  shown 
by  publishers  in  their  choice  of  translators  will  provoke 
a  reaction,  and  that  such  work  will  be  more  generously 
remunerated  and  entrusted  to  real  experts  hereafter. 

It  is  unfortunately  true  that  the  translators  who  work 
for  English  publishers  are  far  more  competent  than  those 
who  do  similar  work  in  the  United  States,;  forasmuch  as 
transatlantic  firms  are  glad  to  print  cheap  popular  trans- 
lations, while  only  inferior  American  firms  care  to  under- 
take them.  Another  obstacle  to  good  translations  in  the 
United  States  is  that  none  of  the  great  literary  periodi- 
cals will  devote  space  to  them.  The  English  and  the 
French  magazines  and  reviews  are  less  conservative,  and 
some  very  wonderful  translations  have  been  published  by 
them.  Artistic  translation  might  be  admirably  developed 
in  this  country  by  the  establishment  of  a  new  magazine- 
policy. 

The  wise  reader,  if  he  is  also  a  sincere  friend  of 
Hearn,  must  wish  that  the  correspondence  published 
had  been  limited  to  the  first  volume.  Room  aplenty 
in  this  could  have  been  made  for  the  dozen  valuable 
paragraphs  contained  in  the  second.  It  is  not  strange 


74  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

that  the  letters  of  Hearn  worth  saving  were  written 
before  his  departure  for  Japan.  He  repeatedly  had 
urged  that  letter-writing  both  financially  and  men- 
tally was  expensive  to  the  writer.  In  Japan  he  was 
so  incessantly  busy,  much  with  his  teaching  and  more 
with  his  real  literary  work,  that  time  and  will  were 
wanting  for  that  sort  of  letters  which  are  of  interest 
to  the  general  reader.  The  interest  of  the  person 
addressed  is  another  affair.  The  dreary  half-thou- 
sand pages  of  the  correspondence  of  the  Japanese  time 
are  most  disappointing  to  on©  who  has  been  thrilled 
by  almost  every  page  of  the  incomparable  letters  to 
Krehbiel  and  to  a  few  others.  Besides  the  two 
reasons  for  this  which  I  have  suggested,  there  are 
others  which  may  perhaps  be  evident  to  some 
judicious  readers,  but  which  at  this  time  may  scarce- 
ly be  plainly  stated.  At  present  the  trees  are  so 
thick  that  the  forest  cannot  be  seen,  but  some  day 
an  amused  and  an  amusing  smile  of  recognition  and 
disgust  will  curl  the  lips  of  the  literary  critic.  There 
are  two  other  considerations  which  should  be  held  in 
mind:  One  of  them  was  brought  to  me  by  a  corre- 
spondent of  Hearn  who  had  frequently  noted  it ;  some 
times  (has  it  happened  before?)  Hearn  used  his 
"friend"  to  whom  he  was  writing,  as  a  sort  of  method 
of  exercising  his  own  fancy,  as  a  gymnastics  in  put- 
ting his  imagination  through  its  paces,  or  for  a  pre- 
liminary sketching  in  of  notes  and  reminders  to  be  of 


The  New  Orleans  Time  75 

possible  use  in  later  serious  work.  Moreover,  the 
plan  was  of  service  in  rewarding  his  correspondents 
for  their  praise  and  appreciation.  Of  a  far  more 
substantial  character  were  the  letters  sometimes 
written  in  gratitude  for  money  received.  Hearn 
flattered  himself,  as  we  know,  that  he  was  without 
"cunning,"  but  there  is  at  least  one  exquisitely 
ludicrous  letter  in  existence  which  shows  an  inverted 
proof  of  it,  in  the  execution  of  an  Indian  war-dance, 
because  of  "the  ways  and  means"  furnished. 

As  published,  Hearn's  letters  may  be  classified  as 
follows :    To 
Krehbiel 1887  (3);  1878  (5);  1879  (2); 

1880  (3) ;  1881  (4) ;  1882  (4) ; 

1883  (4) ;  1884  (13) ;  1885  (8) ; 

1886  (6);  1887  (4) 56 

Hart 1882  (3) ;  1883  (1)   4 

Ball 1882  (2) ;  1883  (4) ;  1885  (3)  9 

O'Connor 1883  (4);  1884  (2);  1885  (2); 

1886  (2) ;  1887  (2)    12 

Albee 1883  (1) ;  1898  (2)  3 

Gould 1887  (5);  1888  (4);  1889  (8)  17 

Bisland 1887  (8);  1889  (11);  1890  (3); 

1900  (1) ;  1902  (3) ;  1903  (9) ; 

1904  (1)  36 

Tunison 1889  (1)  1 

Chamberlain...  1890  (7);  1891  (13); 

1895  (22)  42 

Nishida 1890  (2);  1891  (2);  1892  (2); 

1893  (9) ;  1894  (2) ;  1895  (3) ; 

1896  (3) ;  1897  (2)  25 


76  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Him 1890  (1);  1902  (5);  1903  (1) 7 

Baker 1891  (1);  1892  (1);  1894  (1); 

1895  (3) ;  1896  (2)  8 

Hendrick 1891  (2);  1892  (4);  1893  (10); 

1894  (6) ;  1895  (6) ;  1896  (9) ; 

1897  (7) ;  1898  (2) ;  1902  (2)  48 

Otani 1891  (1);  1892  (1);  1894  (1); 

1897  (1) ;  1898  (2) ;  1900  (1)  7 

Ochiai 1893  (2) ;  1894  (2) ;  1896  (2)  6 

McDonald 1897  (10);  1898  (25);  1899  (19) 54 

Fenollosa 1898  (3);  1899  (2)  5 

Blank 1898  1 

Foxwell 1899  2 

Yasuchochi 1901  1 

Tanabe 1904 1 

Crosby 1904 1 

Fujisaki 1904 1 


347 

Besides  these,  the  valuable  series  of  "Letters  from 
a  Raven,"  and  the  sixteen  in  the  same  volume  "To  a 
Lady"  are  noteworthy.  The  latter  are  of  little  value 
either  for  biography  or  literature.  But  the  letters 
to  Watkin  are  so  sincere,  often  childlike,  indeed,  that 
they  will  be  prized  by  the  discriminating.  Another 
admirable  series,  copies  of  which  I  have,  is  made  up 
of  letters  to  Professor  R.  Matas,  of  New  Orleans. 
To  these  it  is  hoped  will  sometime  be  added  those 
which  must  exist,  to  Mr.  Alden,  who  was  an  early 
and  sincere  friend.  There  are  a  number  of  unpub- 


The  New  Orleans  Time  77 

lished  letters  to  GTould,  and  the  published  ones  have 
been  so  mutilated  that  they  should  be  correctly  re- 
published.  Almost  anything  written  by  Hearn  be- 
fore he  went  to  Japan,  or  in  some  instances  reflecting 
friendships '  and  feelings  existing  before  he  sailed, 
may  prove  of  as  inestimable  value  as  most  letters 
written  thereafter  will  probably  be  found  valueless. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  the  first  series,  edited  by 
Miss  Bisland,  was  commenced  in  1877,  when  Hearn 
was  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  and  that  for  many 
years  Mr.  Krehbiel  was  almost  his  sole  correspond- 
ent. But  the  inimitable  perfection  and  precious- 
ness  of  these  fifty-six  letters!  They  are  well 
worth  all  his  other  set  productions,  published  or 
burned,  of  the  same  years.  Many  are  singly  worth 
all  the  rest  of  our  letters.  Here  the  dreamer — and 
a  dreamer  he  always  was  until  he  got  out  of  his 
cocoon — was  sincere,  hopeful,  planful,  as  playful  as 
his  sombre  mind  would  permit,  but  always  mag- 
nificently, even  startlingly,  unreserved.  Remember- 
ing that  Hearn's  mind  was  essentially  an  echoing  and 
a  coloring  mechanism,  it  is  at  once  a  glorious  tribute 
to,  and  a  superlative  merit  of  Mr.  Krehbiel  to  have 
given  the  primary  and  stimulating  voice  to  the 
always  listening  dreamer.  To  have  swerved  him  out 
of  his  predestined  role  so  much  as  to  make  these 
pages  so  astonishingly  full  of  musical  reverberations, 
is  a  tribute  to  his  own  musical  enthusiasm  and  power 


78  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

as  it  is  also  a  demonstration  of  the  echo-like,  but 
fundamentally  unmusical,  nature  of  his  friend's 
mind.  If  only  in  the  final  edition  of  Hearn's  works, 
these  letters  with  selections  of  some  pages  from  a 
few  others,  could  be  made  into  a  handy,  small,  and 
cheap  volume  for  the  delighting  of  the  appreciators 
of  literature  and  of  literary  character !  Comparison 
of  the  spiritual  and  almost  spirituelle  flashings  of 
these,  with  the  ponderous  and  banal  sogginess  of 
hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  other  pages  of  his  letters, 
arouses  the  profound  regret  that  Hearn  to  the  world 
was  "impossible,"  that,  as  he  says,  he  "could  not 
mingle  with  men,"  that  no  other  voices  ever  so  in- 
timately reached  the  heart  of  him,  or  of  his  dreaming. 
Even  here  the  amazing  coloration  furnished  by  "The 
Dreamer,"  as  he  calls  himself,  makes  us  at  times 
feel  that  the  magic  of  the  word-artist  and  color-mixer 
was  almost  superior  to  the  enduring  and  awakening 
reality  of  Mr.  Krehbiel.  To  this  friend,  as  he  writes, 
he  spoke  of  his  thoughts  and  fancies,  wishes  and  dis- 
appointments, frailties,  follies,  and  failures,  and  suc- 
cesses— even  as  to  a  brother.  And  that  was  not  all 
he  saw  and  heard  in  "his  enchanted  City  of  Dreams." 
The  slavery  to  ignoble  journalism,  what  he  calls  a 
"really  nefarious  profession,"  was  to  be  resolutely 
renounced  from  the  day  of  his  arrival  in  New 
Orleans.  It  is  "a  horrid  life,"  he  "could  not  stand 
the  gaslight ;"  he  "damned  reportorial  work  and  cor- 


The  New  Orleans  Time  79 

respondence,  and  the  American  disposition  to  work 
people  to  death,  and  the  American  delight  in  getting 
worked  to  death;"  he  rebelled  against  becoming  a 
part  of  the  revolving  machinery  of  a  newspaper,  be- 
cause "journalism  dwarfs,  stifles,  emasculates  thought 
and  style,"  and  he  was  bound  to  "produce  something 
better  in  point  of  literary  execution." 

There  was  also  a  not  frankly  confessed  resolve  to 
become  respectable  in  other  ways,  and  to  be  done 
with  a  kind  of  entanglement  of  which  he  was  pain- 
fully conscious  in  the  Cincinnati  life.  "I  think  I 
can  redeem  myself  socially  here!  I  have  got  into 
good  society;"  "it  is  better  to  live  here  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes,  than  to  own  the  whole  State  of  Ohio,"  he 
writes,  and  he  is  proud  of  living  in  a  Latin  city.  He 
recognizes  what  Mr.  Krehbiel  calls  his  "peculiar  and 
unfortunate  disposition,"  and  which  he  later  sets  forth 
as  "a  very  small,  erratic,  eccentric,  irregular,  im- 
pulsive, variable,  nervous  disposition."  Hearn  visits 
a  few  friends  awhile  and  then  disappears  for  six 
months,  so  that  he  wishes  to  be  hidden  in  New  York 
except  to  Krehbiel  and  Tunison ;  he  will  pay  a  visit 
to  the  others  he  must  see  just  before  leaving  town, — 
for  he  is  a  "demophobe."  He  tried  a  secret  partner- 
ship in  keeping  a  restaurant,  and  thought  to  carry 
on  a  little  French  bookstore.  He  resolved  at  different 
times  to  go  to  Europe,  to  Cuba,  to  Texas,  to  Cin- 
cinnati, and  planned  all  sorts  of  occupations. 


80  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

The  indications  soon  multiply  that  in  more  ways 
than  in  worldly  matters  he  is  at  variance  with  his 
world.  He  "regards  thought  as  a  mechanical  proc- 
ess;" he  has  "no  faith  in  any  faith;"  "individual 
life  is  a  particle  of  that  eternal  force  of  which  we 
know  so  little;"  "Soul  =  Cerebral  Activity  =  Soul;" 
Jesus  is  a  legend  and  myth ;  he  is  "not  a  believer  in 
free  will,  nor  in  the  individual  soul,"  etc.  Think  of 
a  man  writing  to  a  Christian  minister,  think  of  a 
Christian  minister  receiving  without  protest  a  per- 
sonal letter  with  this  in  it:  "Nor  can  I  feel  more 
reverence  for  the  crucified  deity  than  for  that  image 
of  the  Hindoo  god  of  light  holding  in  one  of  his 
many  hands  Phallus,  and  yet  wearing  a  necklace  of 
skulls,  etc." 

And  Hearn,  as  to  ethics,  has  the  courage  to  write 
his  friend  of  his  convictions:  "Passion  was  the  in- 
spiring breath  of  Greek  art  and  the  mother  of 
language;  its  gratification  the  act  of  a  creator,  and 
the  divinest  rite  of  Nature's  temple."  In  other  let- 
ters, unpublished,  that  exist,  Hearn  is  morbidly  frank 
as  to  sexual  license  and  practices.  In  tropical  cities 
there  is  "no  time  for  friendship,— only  passion  for 
women,  and  brief  acquaintance  for  men."  Without 
the  influence  of  sexualism  there  can  be  no  real  great- 
ness; "the  mind  remains  arid  and  desolate,"  and  he 
quotes  approvingly: — "Virginity,  Mysticism,  Mel- 
ancholy,— three  unknown  words,  three  new  maladies 


The  New  Orleans  Time  81 

brought  among  us  by  the  Christ,"  etc.  "I  do  not 
find  it  possible  to  persuade  myself  that  the  'mad 
excess  of  love'  should  not  be  indulged  in  by  man- 
kind," introduces  a  brilliant  page  upon  the  theme, 
ending  with,  "after  all  what,  else  do  we  live  for — 
ephemera?  that  we  are?"  To  my  protest  he  wrote, 
"  'Moral'  feelings  are  those  into  which  the  sexual  in- 
stinct does  not  visibly  enter;"  and  again,  "The  sexual 
sense  never  tells  a  physical  lie.  It  only  tells  an 
ethical  one."  There  is,  to  be  sure,  no  answer  to  a 
man  who  says  such  things. 

It  is  astonishing,  how  conscious  and  at  the  same 
time  how  careless  Hearn  was  of  his  characteristics 
and  trends.  In  1878  he  could  coldly  prepare  to  at- 
tempt a  get-rich-quick  scheme,  "a  fraud,  which  will 
pay  like  hell,  an  advertising  fraud,"  etc.,  because 
"there  is  no  money  in  honest  work."  At  this  time 
also  he  knew  that  his  own  wandering  passion  was 
"the  strongest  of  all,"  and  that  his  deepest  desire  was 
"to  wander  forever  here  and  there  until  he  should 
get  old  and  apish  and  grey  and  die."  His  misfort- 
unes he  confessed  were  of  his  own  making  because  it 
was  absolutely  out  of  the  question  for  him  to  "keep 
any  single  situation  for  any  great  length  of  time," 
hating  the  mere  idea  of  it,  "impossible  to  stay  any- 
where without  getting  into  trouble."  "No  one  ever 
lived  who  seemed  more  a  creature  of  circumstance 
than  I,,"  he  correctly  avows.  He  recognizes  that  "the 


82  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

unexpected  obstacle  to  success  was  usually  erected  by 
himself." 

He  acknowledges  his  ignorance  and  escapes  from 
it  and  from  the  labor,  expense,  and  duty  of  scholar- 
ship by  flying,  as  many  others  have  done,  to  the 
world  of  Imagination,  which  alone  is  left  to  him. 
"It  allows  of  a  vagueness  of  expression  which  hides 
the  absence  of  real  knowledge,  and  dispenses  with 
the  necessity  of  technical  precision  and  detail."  He 
"never  reads  a  book  which  does  not  powerfully  im- 
press the  imagination."  Knowing  that  he  has  not 
true  and  real  genius,  he  "pledges  himself  to  the 
worship  of  the  Odd,  the  Queer,  the  Strange,  the 
Exotic,  the  Monstrous.  It  quite  suits  my  tempera- 
ment," and  he  "hopes  to  succeed  in  attracting  some 
little  attention."  The  monstrous,  the  enormous,  and 
the  lurid,  is  sought  in  the  letters.  The  sentence  at 
the  bottom  of  page  226,  Volume  One  of  the  "Life  and 
Letters"  and  the  ghastly  story,  pages  322-323,  show 
the  gruesome  still  much  alive,  and  page  306  that 
blood,  fury,  and  frenzy  haunt  his  nightmare  dreams. 
"In  history  one  should  only  seek  the  extraordinary, 
the  monstrous,  the  terrible;  in  mythology  the  most 
fantastic  and  sensuous,  just  as  in  romance."  And 
yet  he  defends  himself  as  a  lover  of  Greek  art,  de- 
tests "the  fantastic  beauty  that  is  Gothic,"  yet  prides 
himself  on  being  Arabesque.  Even  the  love  of 
Beaudelaire  creeps  in,  and  the  brutal  horrible  photo- 


The  New  Orleans  Time  83 

graph  of  Gautier  is  "grander  than  he  imagined."  Of 
course  to  such  a  mind  Matthew  Arnold  is  a  "colossal 
humbug," — and  worse. 

With  increasing  frequency  are  repeated  the  com- 
plaints of  disillusionment;  he  is  frightened  at  the 
loss  even  of  the  love  of  the  beautiful,  and  his  friend 
tries  in  vain  to  rouse  him  from  his  ghost-life  and 
dreaming.  There  are  absurd  excuses  why  he  cannot 
work;  when  among  beautiful  things  he  cannot  write 
of  them,  when  he  is  away  he  is  longing  for  them; 
there  are  months  when  he  cannot  do  anything,  and  a 
little  thing  is  produced  with  great  pain  and  labor. 
"The  old  enthusiasm  has  completely  died  out  of  me." 
The  people  and  the  city  are  adequately  cursed,  and 
upon  the  debilitating  climate  is  laid  a  proper  and 
ever-repeated  anathema.  He  loathes  the  North,  es- 
pecially ~New  York  City,  "shudders  at  the  bare  idea 
of  cold ;"  he  yearns  and  pines  for  a  still  more  tropical 
country  which  he  knows  may  kill  him,  and  which 
came  near  doing  so.  The  Wanderlust  is  upon  him  as 
passages  on  pages  183,  193,  196,  19T,  207,  215,  223, 
224,  398  of  Volume  One  of  the  "Life  and  Letters" 
illustrate.  At  last  he  is  off  for  Martinique,  where 
work  and  even  thought  are  still  more  impossible  be- 
cause of  the  benumbing  heat. 

Here  follows  a  list  of  the  unsigned  editorials  con- 
tributed by  Hearn  to  his  paper.  It  is  made  up  from 
two  of  the  scrap-books  left  me,  and  is  entitled: 


84  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

SUNDAY  AND  SPECIAL  EDITORIALS  BY  LAFCADIO 
HEARN  FOR  THE  TIMES-DEMOCRAT^,1885-1887. 

1.  The  "Peronospora  Ferrani"  and  Cholera  Vaccina- 
tion 

2.  Literary  Pessimism 

3.  "The  Song  Celestial" 

4.  The  Canonization  of  the  Mahdi 

5.  " Successor  of  Tamerlane" 

6.  The  World 's  Journalism 

7.  A  Scientific  Novelty 

8.  The  Jewish  Question  in  Europe  (Suppressed  by  the 
management) 

9.  Russian  Literature  Abroad 

10.  The  European  Trouble 

11.  Missionaries  as  Linguists 

12.  Courbet 

13.  Poetry  and  Pay 

14.  The  Present  and  Future  of  India 

15.  An  Archaeological  Novel 

16.  An  Evolutional  History 

17.  A  New  Pompeii 

18.  Archaeology  in  Cambodia 

19.  The  Great  "I- Am" 

20.  A  Terrible  Novel 

21.  The  Latin  Church  in  the  East  and  Bismarck 

22.  English  Policy  in  China 

23.  The  Fear  of  Death 

24.  A  Danger  to  Egypt — The  Senousiya 

25.  Archaeological  News  from  China 

26.  Icelandic  Prospects 

27.  A  Great  English  Physician 

28.  Academical  Triumphs 


The  New  Orleans  Time  85 


29.  The  Magician  of  Paris 

30.  Tolstoi's  Vanity  of  Wisdom 

31.  "  Minos  " 

32.  Newspapers  and  Religion 

33.  Minos 

34.  A  Concord  Compromise 

35.  De  Mercier  on  Dante 

36.  The  Origin  of  Christmas 

37.  "Immortality"  according  to  Dr.  Holland 

38.  The  Future  of  Idealism 

39.  "Solitude" 

40.  Dr.  Holland's  Defenders 

41.  The  Religion  of  Suffering 

42.  The  Ruins  of  Carthage 

43.  A  Defense  of  Pessimism 

44.  Over-Education  in  Germany 

45.  Decadence  as  a  Fine  Art 

46.  Use  of  the  Eye  or  the  Ear  in  Learning  Languages 

47.  The  Shadow  of  the  "Light  of  Asia" 

48.  The  Jew  upon  the  Stage 

49.  Some  Theosophical  Iconoclasm 

50.  "Hamlet's  Note-Book" 

51.  The  Invasion  of  the  Desert 

52.  Resurrected  Estheticism 

53.  Translations 

54.  Nihilistic  Literature  in  the  United  States 

55.  Some  Human  Frailty 

56.  An  Art-Reformer 

57.  Some  Notes  on  Creole  Literature 

58.  The  Scientific  Value  of  Creole 

59.  "I'CEuvre" 

60.  A  Havanese  Romance 

61.  Some  Supposed  Sanscrit  Translations 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


62.  The  Omnivorous  Newspaper 

63.  A  Religious  Nightmare 

64.  Joaquin  Miller 

65.  Pictures  vs.  Texts 

66.  " Follow  the  Donkey  Path" 

67.  A  Sketch  of  the  Creole  Patois 
t>8.  In  Spain 

69.  Chinese  Belief  in  God 

70.  "  Towards  the  Gulf" 

71.  Tennyson's  Locksley  Hall 

72.  " Doesn't  Want  Any  Progress" 

73.  The    Howard    Memorial   Library — A    Letter    from 
Charles  Dudley  Warner 

74.  A  Definitive  Rossetti 

75.  The  Chinese  Future 

76.  Artistic  Value  of  Myopia 

77.  Colors  and  Emotions 


CHAPTER  V 

AT    MARTINIQUE 

THE  lure  of  the  Sea  and  o£  the  Unknown  was  upon 
Hearn  during  the  entire  stay  at  New  Orleans.  How 
deeply  it  entered  his  heart  is  shown  in  a  fragment 
rescued  by  his  friend,  Dr.  Matas,  which  has  been 
kindly  sent  me.  The  copy  is  in  print,  but  when  and 
where  it  was  published  we  have  been  unable  to  learn. 
It  was  probably  written  in  1885  or  1886.  As  it  gives 
glimpses  at  once  into  Hearn's  mind,  of  his  fateful 
desire  to  roam,  of  his  Nature-love,  and,  better,  of  his 
growing  mastery  of  technic  and  imagery,  I  repro- 
duce herewith  the  fragment,  which  he  entitled : 

GULF    WINDS 

Golden  oranges  piled  up  in  bins, — apples  of  the  South- 
ern Hesperides; — a  medley  of  meridional  tongues, — silky 
Latin  tongues  and  their  silkier  patois;  Chinese  buyers 
yellow  as  bananas,  quadroons  with  skin  like  dead  gold; 
swarthy  sailors  from  the  Antilles;  sharp  odors  of  fruit 
freshly  disembarked; — all  the  semi-tropical  sights  and 
sounds  of  the  French  market.  I  stood  beside  an  orange- 
bin  ;  and  priced  the  fruit.  Fifty  cents  a  hundred !  While 
wondering  how  much  the  f ruit- vender 's  profit  could  pos- 
sibly be,  I  was  insensibly  attracted  by  something  unusual 
in  his  face — a  shadow  of  the  beauty  of  the  antique  world 
seemed  to  rest  upon  it.  "Are  you  not  a  Greek ?"  I  asked, 
for  there  was  no  mistaking  the  metoposcopy  of  that  head. 

87 


88  Concerning  Lafeadio  Hearn 

Yes;  he  was  from  Zante — first  a  sailor,  now  a  fruit- 
vender;  some  day,  perhaps,  he  would  be  a  merchant. 

It  is  among  those  who  sell,  not  among  those  who  buy, 
that  the  most  curious  studies  of  human  nature  and  of  the 
human  face  are  to  be  made  in  the  French  market.  These 
dealers  are  by  no  means  usually  French,  but  they  are 
mostly  from  the  Mediterranean  coasts  and  the  Levant 
— from  Sicily  and  Cyprus,  Corsica  and  Malta,  the  Ionian 
Archipelago,  and  a  hundred  cities  fringing  the  coasts  of 
Southern  Europe.  They  are  wanderers,  who  have  wand- 
ered all  over  the  face  of  the  earth  to  find  rest  at  last  in 
this  city  of  the  South ;  they  are  sailors  who  have  sailed  all 
seas,  and  sunned  themselves  at  a  hundred  tropical  ports, 
and  finally  anchored  their  lives  by  the  levee  of  New 
Orleans.  The  Neapolitan  Italian,  the  Spaniard,  the  Cor- 
sican,  the  Levantine  Greek,  seek  rest  from  storm  here,  in 
a  clime  akin  to  their  own  and  under  a  sky  as  divinely 
blue,  and  at  a  port  not  far  distant  from  their  beloved  sea. 
For  these  Levantine  sailors  hate  dusty  inland  cities  and 
the  dry  air  of  the  Great  West. 

If  you,  0  reader,  chance  to  be  a  child  of  the  sea; — if, 
in  early  childhood,  you  listened  each  morning  and  evening 
to  that  most  ancient  and  mystic  hymn-chant  of  the  waves, 
which  none  can  hear  without  awe,  and  which  no  musician 
can  learn ; — if  you  have  ever  watched  wonderingly  the  far 
sails  of  the  fishing-vessels  turn  rosy  in  the  blush  of  sunset, 
or  silver  under  the  moon,  or  golden  in  the  glow  of  sun- 
rise;— if  you  once  breathed  as  your  native  air  the  divine 
breath  of  the  ocean,  and  learned  the  swimmer's  art  from 
the  hoary  breakers,  and  received  the  Ocean-god 's  christen- 
ing, the  glorious  baptism  of  salt, — then,  perhaps,  you  know 
only  too  well  why  these  sailors  of  the  Levant  cannot  seek 
homes  within  the  heart  of  the  land.  Twenty  years  may 


At  Martinique  89 


have  passed  since  your  ears  last  caught  the  thunder  of 
that  mighty  ode  of  hexameters  which  the  sea  has  always 
sung  and  will  sing  forever,  since  your  eyes  sought  the  far 
line  where  the  vaulted  blue  of  heaven  touches  the  level 
immensity  of  rolling  water, — since  you  breathed  the 
breath  of  the  ocean,  and  felt  its  clear  ozone  living  in 
your  veins  like  an  elixir.  Have  you  forgotten  the  mighty 
measure  of  that  mighty  song?  have  you  forgotten  the 
divine  saltiness  of  that  unfettered  wind?  Is  not  the  spell 
of  the  sea  strong  upon  you  still? 

So  that  when  the  long,  burning  summer  comes,  and  the 
city  roars  dustily  around  you,  and  your  ears  are  filled 
with  the  droning  hum  of  machinery,  and  your  heart  full 
of  the  bitterness  of  the  struggle  for  life,  there  comes  to 
you  at  long  intervals  in  the  dingy  office  or  the  crowded 
street  some  memory  of  white  breakers  and  vast  stretches 
of  wrinkled  sand  and  far-fluttering  breezes  that  seem  to 
whisper,  "Come!" 

So  that  when  the  silent  night  comes, — you  find  yourself 
revisiting  in  dreams  those  ocean-shores  thousands  of  miles 
away.  The  wrinkled  sand,  ever  shifting  yet  ever  the 
same,  has  the  same  old  familiar  patches  of  vari-colored 
weeds  and  shining  rocks  along  its  level  expanse:  and  the 
thunder-chant  of  the  sea  which  echoes  round  the  world, 
eternal  yet  ever  new,  is  rolling  up  to  heaven.  The  glad 
waves  leap  up  to  embrace  you;  the  free  winds  shout  wel- 
come in  your  ears;  white  sails  are  shining  in  the  west; 
white  sea-birds  are  flying  over  the  gleaming  swells.  And 
from  the  infinite  expanse  of  eternal  sky  and  everlasting 
sea,  there  comes  to  you,  with  the  heavenly  ocean-breeze, 
a  thrilling  sense  of  unbounded  freedom,  a  delicious  feel- 
ing as  of  life  renewed,  an  ecstacy  as  of  life  restored.  And 
so  you  start  into  wakefulness  with  the  thunder  of  that 


90  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


sea-dream  in  your  ears  and  tears  of  regret  in  your  eyes 
to  find  about  you  only  heat  and  dust  and  toil ;  the  awaken- 
ing rumble  of  traffic,  and  "the  city  sickening  on  its  own 
thick  breath. " 

And  I  think  that  the  Levantine  sailors  dare  not  dwell  in 
the  midst  of  the  land,  for  fear  lest  dreams  of  a  shadowy 
sea  might  come  upon  them  in  the  night,  and  phantom 
winds  call  wildly  to  them  in  their  sleep,  and  they  might 
wake  to  find  themselves  a  thousand  miles  beyond  the 
voice  of  the  breakers. 

Sometimes,  I  doubt  not,  these  swarthy  sellers  of  fruit, 
whose  black  eyes  sparkle  with  the  sparkle  of  the  sea,  and 
whose  voices  own  the  tones  of  ocean-winds,  sicken  when  a 
glorious  breeze  from  the  Gulf  enters  the  city,  shaking 
the  blossoms  from  the  magnolia-trees  and  the  orange- 
groves.  Sometimes,  I  doubt  not,  they  forsake  their 
Southern  home  when  the  dream  comes  upon  them,  and 
take  ship  for  the  Spanish  Main.  Yet  I  think  most  men 
may  wake  here  from  the  dreams  of  the  sea,  and  rest  again. 
It  is  true  that  you  cannot  hear  the  voice  of  the  hoary 
breakers  in  the  moonlight, — only  the  long  panting  of  the 
cotton-presses,  the  shouting  of  the  boats  calling  upon  each 
other  through  the  tropical  night,  and  the  ceaseless  song 
of  night-birds  and  crickets.  But  the  sea-ships,  with  their 
white  wings  folded,  are  slumbering  at  the  wharves;  the 
sea-winds  are  blowing  through  the  moon-lit  streets,  and 
from  the  South  arises  a  wondrous  pale  glow,  like  the  far 
reflection  of  the  emerald  green  of  the  ocean.  So  that  the 
Greek  sailor,  awaking  from  the  vision  of  winds  and  waves, 
may  join  three  fingers  of  his  right  hand,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Eastern  Church,  and  cross  himself,  and  sleep  again 
in  peace. 


At  Martinique  91 


Hearn  left  New  Orleans  in  July,  1887,  and  was 
soon  settled  at  St.  Pierre,  Martinique.  His  letters  to 
Dr.  Matas  form  the  principal  sources  of  information 
concerning  himself  and  his  work  during  his  stay 
there.  From  them  I  choose  a  few  selections  which 
bear  upon  his  literary  labors.  At  first,  of  course,  all 
is  perfection: — 

I  am  absolutely  bewitched,  and  resolved  to  settle  down 
somewhere  in  the  West  Indies.  Martinique  is  simply 
heaven  on  earth.  You  must  imagine  a  community  whose 
only  vices  are  erotic.  There  are  no  thieves,  no  roughs,  no 
snobs.  Everything  is  primitive  and  morally  pure — except 
in  the  only  particular  where  purity  would  be  out  of 
harmony  with  natural  conditions.  As  for  the  climate,  it 
is  divine — though  this  is  the  worst  season. 

And  I  have  begun  to  hate  all  that  is  energetic,  swift, 
rapid  in  thought  or  action,  all  rivalry,  all  competition,  all 
striving  in  the  race  of  success.  It  is  just  enough  to  live 
here:  no,  it  is  too  much! — it  is  more  than  any  ordinary 
human  being  deserves  to  enjoy.  It  makes  one  feel  like 
crying  for  joy  just  to  look  about  one. 

Couldn't  I  induce  you  to  abandon  the  beastly  civiliza- 
tion of  the  U.  S.,  and  live  somewhere  down  here  for- 
ever more, — where  everybody  is  honest  and  good-natured 
and  courteous,  and  where  everything  is  divine?  Man  was 
not  intended  to  work  in  this  part  of  the  world:  while 
you  are  here,  you  cannot  quite  persuade  yourself  you  are 
awake, — it  is  a  dream  of  eternal  beauty, — all  the  musky 
winds,  all  the  flower-months  of  Paradise!  New  Orleans 
is  the  most  infernal  hole  in  the  entire  Cosmos.  Don't 
live  in  it !  Confound  fame  and  wealth  and  reputation  and 


92  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

splendor.  You  don't  need  any  of  these  things  here;  they 
are  superfluous;  they  are  obsolete;  they  are  nuisances; 
they  are  living  curses.  Settle  here.  Humming-birds  will 
fly  into  your  chamber  to  wake  you  up.  What  on  earth  you 
can  find  to  live  for  in  the  U.  S.  I  am  now  at  a  loss  to  see. 
You'll  get  old  there; — here  you  will  remain  eternally 
young :  the  palms  distil  Elixir  Vitae. 

But  it  is  simply  foolishness  to  write  to  you — because  I 
can't  write  about  this  place.  All  ambition  to  write  has 
been  paralyzed — let  Nature  do  the  writing — in  green, 
azure  and  gold! 

(Letter  from  St.  Pierre,  July  30,  1887.) 

I  am  not  at  all  sure  of  my  literary  future, — I  do  not 
mean  pecuniarily,  for  I  never  allow  that  question  to 
seriously  bother  me:  to  write  simply  to  make  money  is  to 

be  a  d d  fraud,  so  long  as  one  can  aim  at  higher  things. 

But  I  do  not  feel  the  same  impulses  and  inspirations  and 
power  to  create; — I  have  been  passing  through  a  sort  of 
crisis, — out  of  enthusiasm  into  reality  and  I  do  not  feel 
so  mentally  strong  as  I  ought.  The  climate  had  much  to 
do  with  it  in  the  beginning,  causing  a  serious  weakness  of 
memory; — that  is  now  passed;  but  I  feel  as  if  man  dme 
avait  perdu  ses  ailes.  Perhaps  something  healthier  and 
stronger  may  come  of  it;  but  in  the  meanwhile  I  suffer 
from  great  disquietude,  and  occasional  very  black  ideas; 
and  praise  sounds  to  me  like  a  malicious  joke,  because  I 
feel  that  my  work  has  been  damnably  bad.  The  fact  that 
I  know  it  has  been  bad,  encourages  me  to  believe  I  may 
do  better,  and  find  confidence  in  myself. 

I  have  enough  MS.  for  a  volume  of  French  colonial 
sketches,  and  do  not  think  I  will  be  able  to  do  much  more 
with  Martinique  for  the  present;  but  I  also  have  ac- 


LAFCADIO    HEARN 
From  a  photograph  taken  at  Martinique,  August  2.'t,  1888 


At  Martinique 


cumulated  material  out  of  which  something  will  probably 
grow.  I  would  now  like  to  attempt  some  Spanish  studies. 

Northern  air  will  do  me  good,  though  I  do  not  like  the 
idea  of  living  in  it.  But  when,  after  all  this  stupid, 
brutal,  never-varying  heat,  you  steam  North,  and  the 
constellations  change,  and  the  mopn  stands  up  on  her  feet 
instead  of  lying  on  her  back  lasciviously, — and  the  first 
grand  whiff  of  cold  air  comes  like  the  advent  of  a  Ghost, 
— Lord!  how  one's  brain  suddenly  clears  and  thrills  into 
working  order.  It  is  like  a  new  soul  breathed  into  your 
being  through  the  nostrils — after  the  Creator's  fashion  of 
animating  his  Adam  of  clay. 

Perhaps  you  think  I  have  been  a  poor  correspondent. 
You  can  scarcely  imagine  the  difficulties  of  maintaining 
a  friendly  chat  by  letter  while  trying  to  do  literary  work 
here.  Most  people  who  attempt  literature  here  either  give 
it  up  after  a  short  time,  or  go  to  the  graveyard :  there  are 
a  few  giants, — like  Dr.  Rufz  de  Lavison  (who  never 
finished  his  Etudes  nevertheless),  Davey  the  historian; 
Dessalles  who  suddenly  disappeared  leaving  his  history 
incomplete.  But  I  fear  I  am  no  giant.  At  2  or  2.30  p.  m. 
if  you  try  to  write,  your  head  feels  as  if  a  heated  feather 
pillow  had  been  stuffed  into  your  skull.  To  write  at  all 
one  must  utilize  the  morning; — that  is  given  to  make  the 
pot  boil:  one  can  write  letters  only  at  intervals,  para- 
graph by  paragraph,  or  between  solid  chapters  of  down- 
right wearing-out  work. 

Nevertheless,  one  learns  to  love  this  land  so  much  as 
to  be  quite  willing  to  abandon  anything  and  everything 
to  live  in  it.  As  in  the  old  Sunday-school  hymn,  "only 
man  is  vile:''  nature  and  Woman  are  unspeakably  sweet. 

I  suppose  I  will  not  be  able  to  meet  you  in  New  York 
this  fall:  you  will  be  too  busy.  Next  summer  it  will  be 


94  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

possible,  I  hope.  Perhaps  you  will  have  the  pleasure  of 
a  little  book  or  two  from  me  during  the  cold  weather:  I 
will  revise  things  in  New  York.  It  has  been  a  horrible 
agony  to  have  my  stuff  printed  without  being  able  to  see 
the  proofs,  and  full  of  mistakes.  "Chita"  has  been  a 
great  literary  success — contrary  to  expectation.  I  find 
success  is  not  decided  by  the  press,  nor  by  first  effect  on 
the  public:  opinions  of  literary  men  count  much  more, 
and  these  have  been  better  than  I  imagined  they  could 
be.  (1887) 

Well,  I  am  caught!  The  tropics  have  me,  for  better  or 
worse,  so  long  as  I  live.  Life  in  a  great  northern  city 
again  would  be  a  horror  insupportable.  Yet  I  have  had 
great  pain  here.  I  have  been  four  months  without  a  cent 
of  money  where  nobody  would  trust  me:  you  know  what 
that  means,  if  you  have  ever  had  a  rough-and-tough  year 
or  two:  otherwise  you  could  not  imagine  it.  I  have  had 
disillusions  in  number.  I  find  worst  of  all,  there  is  no 
inspiration  in  the  tropics, — no  poetry,  no  aspiration,  no 
self-sacrifice,  no  human  effort.  Now,  that  I  can  go  where 
I  like,  do  as  I  please — for  I  have  won  the  fight  after  all, 
— I  still  prefer  one  year  of  Martinique  to  a  thousand 
years  of  New  York.  What  is  it?  Am  I  demoralized;  or 
am  I  simply  better  informed  than  before?  I  don't  really 
know.  (1887) 

New  York,  September  29,  1887.1 

Dear  Friend  Matas: — I  am  going  back  to  the  tropics, 
— probably  for  many  years.  My  venture  has  been  more 
successful  than  I  ever  hoped;  and  I  find  myself  able  to 
abandon  journalism,  with  all  its  pettinesses,  cowardices, 
and  selfishnesses,  forever.  I  am  able  hereafter  to  devote 

1Written  during  a  brief  stay  in  New  York,  whither  he  had 
gone  in  the  fall  of  1887. 


At  Martinique  95 


myself  to  what  you  always  said  was  my  forte:  the  study 
of  tropical  Nature — God's  Nature, — violent,  splendid, 
nude,  and  pure.  I  never  hoped  for  such  fortune.  It  has 
come  unasked.  I  am  almost  afraid  to  think  it  is  true.  I 
am  afraid  to  be  happy! 

%  Dr.  George  M.  Gould, 

119  South  Seventeenth  St., 
Philadelphia,  June  5,  1889. 

Dear  Friend  Matas: — Your  letter  of  March  21  only 
reached  me  today  June  5th;  but  made  me  very  glad  to 
get  it.  I  have  been  back  from  the  West  Indies  about 
three  weeks — do  not  know  how  long  I  shall  stay.  It 
seemed  like  tearing  my  heart  out  to  leave  Martinique; 
and  though  I  am  now  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  cities 
in  the  world,  among  dear  friends,  and  with  the  splendid 
spectacle  before  me  of  man's  grandest  efforts — not  a  wild 
cyclone  of  electricity  and  iron  like  New  York  but  a  great 
quiet  peace — the  tropical  Nature  with  all  its  memories 
haunts  me  perpetually, — draws  my  thought  back  again 
over  the  azure  sea  and  under  the  turquoise  sky  to  the 
great  palms  and  the  volcanic  hills  and  the  beautiful 
brown  women.  I  know  I  shall  have  to  go  back  to  the 
tropics  sooner  or  later. 

The  effect  of  the  climate,  as  you  know,  is  deadly  to 
mental  work.  Physically,  however,  I  felt  better  in  it, — 
less  nervous  than  I  ever  was  before.  Only  one's  will  to 
work  is  broken  down;  and  it  is  better  only  to  collect 
material  there  to  work  up  elsewhere.  That  sort  of  work 
I  am  busy  at  just  now.  I  have  a  signed  contract  for  pub- 
lication of  " Chita"  in  book-form;  and  the  result  of  my 
two-years'  absence  will  be  forthcoming  in  a  volume  of 
larger  size. 


96  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

You  know  Philadelphia,  I  suppose,  the  beautiful  city; 
and  I  suppose  you  know  that  physicians  here  form  the 
leaders  of,  and  give  the  tone  to,  social  life.  It  seems  to 
me  but  just  that  they  should, — representing  the  highest 
intellectual  rank  of  civilization  when  they  are  really 
worthy  of  the  profession. 

.  .  .  .  As  for  other  people  wondering  what  has 
become  of  me;  that  is  just  what  I  want.  I  do  not  care 
to  have  anyone  know  what  I  am  doing  till  it  is  done. 
.  .  .  .  I  have  happily  got  over  a  sort  of  crisis,  how- 
ever, which  isolated  me  more  than  I  would  have  liked  to 
be  isolated  from  the  world  at  large :  the  distrust  of  myself. 

Concerning  the  value  of  Hearn's  Martinique  work, 
I  am  permitted  to  quote  from  a  letter  written  to 
him  on  May  24,  1890,  by  the  late  Edmund  C.  Sted- 
man, — and  there  could  be  no  better  judge  and  critic : 

"I  will  not  leave  without  telling  you  how  much  I 
am  your  debtor  for  the  fascinating  copious  record  of 
your  life  in  the  Windward  Islands,  and  for  your 
'Youma' — both  of  which  I  take  with  me  to  'Kelp 
Rock' — and  which  we  shall  know  by  heart  ere  long. 
The  'Two  Years'  came  when  I  was  'moving'  in  New 
York,  etc., — so  that  books  and  letters,  unacknowl- 
edged, perforce  have  piled  up  on  my  table.  I  am 
grateful  for  your  remembrance  and  your  gifts.  No 
book  could  please  me  more  than  your  'Two  Years.' 
Those  Islands  are  my  Hesperides — I  had  begun  a 
series  of  poems  and  lyrics,  cast  in  the  Caribees,  but 
your  prose  poems  put  mine  to  shame — and  I  am  glad 
to  listen  to  your  music  and  leave  my  own  unsung." 


CHAPTEK   VI 


SHORT  though  it  was  in  time,  the  Philadelphia 
visit  in  1889  has  a  value  long  in  significance,  that 
deserves  epitomization.  To  begin  with,  it  was 
Hearn's  first  experience  of  anything  that  might  be 
called  home-life.  Its  result  was  a  softening  and 
normalizing  of  him  both  as  to  character  and  as  to 
manner,  which  was  most  evident.  Secondly,  and  as 
he  chose  to  put  it,  I  "gave  him  a  soul."  By  this 
poetic  paraphrase  he  meant  that  I  had  succeeded  in 
bringing  to  his  recognition  the  existence  of  Freedom 
in  what  he  thought  determinism ; — that  intelligence, 
purpose,  and  beneficence  lie  behind  biology,  and  that 
human  beings  are  not  always,  and  may  never  be 
wholly,  the  slaves  of  the  senses,  and  the  dupes  of  de- 
sire. Beauty  itself,  which  he  so  widely  sought,  I 
asked  him  to  note,  is  a  needless,  harmful,  and  even 
impossible  thing  in  a  world  of  adamantine  logic  and 
necessity.  Above  all,  I  demonstrated  the  existence  of 
Duty,,  "Stern  Daughter  of  the  Voice  of  God,"  not 
only  in  the  abstract,  but  in  concrete  lives,  in  social 
and  historic  exemplifications,  and  that  only  by  means 
of  men  and  women  who  obey  conscience  is  social  and 
historic  progress  brought  about.  They  who  have  not 
seen  that  can  have  no  "soul;"  they  who  do  see  it, 

97 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


have  soul,  durable  or  great  according  to  the  clear- 
ness of  the  seeing  and  the  obedience  to  the  implica- 
tion. Fully  and  freely  Hearn  acknowledged  the 
vision,  and  never  afterward  could  he  be  wholly  the 
same  as  he  had  been  before.  But  the  Providence  of 
the  Oriental  and  semi-barbarous  is  Improvidence, 
and  their  God  is  Fate.  Hearn  came  to  hate,  or  to 
pretend  to  hate,  the  truth  which  had  now  slipped 
through  his  spiritual  eyes,  but  he  could  not  undo  or 
out-root  it  entirely;  "henceforth  by  the  vision 
splendid  is  on  his  way  attended."  Thirdly,  this 
new  viewpoint,  this  new  spirit  or  soul,  I  got  in- 
corporated in  a  little  art-work,  or  ethical  study, — 
"Karma/'  published  in  Lippincott's  Magazine,  May, 
1890,  after  Hearn  had  gone  to  Japan.  To  the  world 
and  without  the  knowledge  of  its  making,  "Karma" 
must  have  seemed  an  illogical  and  even  impossible 
thing  for  Hearn  to  have  written.  It  is  apparently 
the  sole  work  which  he  ever  wrote,  created  de  novo 
and  without  the  data  having  been  found  or  brought 
to  him  from  without.  But  it  was  only  a  seeming 
creation.  It  was  only  the  telling,  the  coloring,  that 
was  his,  as  in  his  other  tales  before  or  after.  In 
our  long  walks  and  talks  in  the  Park  at  night,  we 
wrought  out  the  title,  the  datum,  and  the  whole  trend 
of  the  story.  He  rebelled,  but  I  held  him  to  the  task, 
which  he  finally  executed  with  frank  and  artistic 
loyalty.  The  pride  or  indifference,  even  the  dislike, 


"Getting  a  Soul"  99 

of  its  readers,  the  writer,  or  inspirer,  is  as  nothing 
compared  with  the  fact  that  by  it  and  from  it  Hearn 
learned  something  of  love  and  duty  that  had  never 
before  been  a  living  reality  to  him.  What  an  in- 
finite distance  it  was  removed  from  anything  dreamed 
during  the  Cincinnati  period,  or  to  be  derived  from 
Flaubert,  Gautier,  or  Beaudelaire!  After  that  his 
future  work  could  never  be,  and  never  was,  what  it 
was  from  the  writing,  "Everything  you  feel  you 
would  not  like  me  to  know/'  I  do  not  think  there  is 
exaggeration  of  the  importance  of  the  story,  and  what 
led  up  to  its  writing,  in  saying  that  it  was  the 
greatest  of  the  turning-points  in  his  life,  and  that 
directly  because  of  it  the  magnificent  works  of  the 
Japanese  period  were  profoundly  influenced  through 
the  attitude  of  mind  thereby  gained. 

Concerning  the  heroine  of  the  tale  Hearn  wrote 
me: 

Your  objection  to  my  idea  is  quite  correct.  I  have 
already  abandoned  it.  It  would  have  to  be  sexual.  Never 
could  find  in  the  tropics  that  magnificent  type  of  woman- 
hood, which  in  the  New  England  girl,  makes  one  afraid 
even  to  think  about  sex,  while  absolutely  adoring  the  per- 
sonality. Perfect  natures  inspire  a  love  that  is  a  fear.  I 
don't  think  any  love  is  noble  without  it.  The  tropical 
woman  inspires  a  love  that  is  half  compassion;  this  is 
always  dangerous,  untrustworthy,  delusive — pregnant  with 
future  pains  innumerable. 

But,  fourthly,  that  in  which  I  feel  as  great  a 


100  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

pride,  is  compelling  him  to  go  to  Japan.  Others 
could  have  reported  for  lurid  yellow  journalism, 
others  might  possibly  have  translated  as  well  as  he, 
others  could  have  told  the  West  Indian  stories,  hut — 
not  even  his  heloved  Lowell, — only  Hearn  could  have 
written  of  the  Japanese  life  and  soul  as  Hearn  has 
done.  He  had  no  thought  of  the  journey  when  I 
showed  him  his  duty  and  his  opportunity.  By  argu- 
ment, pleading,  almost  compulsion,  I  at  last  wearied 
his  opposition,  and  he  went,  with  reluctance,  after 
months  of  halting  in  detested  New  York  City  in 
which  he  learned  by  bitter  experience  that  it  was  no 
place  for  him,  and  that  his  beloved  tropics  should  not 
be  again  sought. 

How  disappointed  he  was  in  his  New  York  friends 
and  prospects  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
excerpt  taken  from  one  of  his  letters  to  me.  I  had 
used  all  my  influence  to  keep  him  from  a  stay  in  the 
city.  He  wrote  as  follows.: 

Dear  Gooley,  your  advice  is  good  from  your  way  of 
looking  at  it;  but  I  am  much  stronger  in  New  York  than 
you  imagine,  and  my  future  in  it  is  plain  and  perfect  sail- 
ing if  I  keep  good  health.  I  am  only  embarrassed  for  the 
moment.  I  am  quite  a  lion  here,  and  could  figure  in  a 
way  you  would  hardly  guess,  if  I  were  not  such  a  man  of 
tentacles.  I  am  not  afraid  of  the  cold, — though  it  dis- 
heartens fancy  a  little;  but  I  shall  leave  fancy  alone  for 
a  while.  No,  Gooley,  dear  Gooley,  I  shall  make  my  way 
in  New  York — don't  be  afraid  for  me. 


HANDWRITING    OF    HEARN    IN    1889 


"Getting  a  Soul"  101 

He  soon  became  convinced  that  I  was  right  and 
finally  resumed  the  journey  unwillingly.  The  end 
has  justified  the  means  and  the  sacrifices.  It  is  plain 
that  the  Japanese  period  and  work  crown  his  life- 
lahors  splendidly,  and  that  his  masterful  pictures  of 
Japanese  character,  traditions,  and  religion  now  con- 
stitute one  of  our  most  precious  literary  treasures. 
They  have  also  been  of  profound  service  to  Japan. 

When  he  left  my  home,  he,  of  his  own  accord, 
asked  me  to  care  for  his  library,  then  in  the  home 
of  Mr.  Alden  at  Metuchen,  New  Jersey,  who  two 
years  previously  had  consented  to  take  charge  of  it, 
and  had  paid  shipping  expenses,  insurance,  etc.  None 
can  imagine  anything  ungenerous  or  unkind  in  Mr. 
Alden.  An  old  Cincinnati  acquaintance  characterizes 
Hearn's  action  in  the  matter  as  "a  swindle."  I  have 
no  knowledge  or  hint  how  it  was  or  could  be  of  that 
nature.  Hearn  wrote  all  the  letters,  and  made  all  the 
arrangements  to  have  the  books  sent  to  me.  Mr. 
Alden  authorizes  me  to  say: 

"I  was  perfectly  convinced  at  the  time  of  the  trans- 
fer of  the  library  to  Dr.  Gould  that  he  had  no  desire 
for  its  possession,  and  that  the  transfer  was  made 
solely  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Hearn's  request.  I  am 
quite  sure  that  Dr.  Gould  fully  explained  the  matter 
to  me  at  the  time.  I  feel  sure  that  Dr.  Gould  acted 
precisely  as  I  should  have  done  if  I  had  retained  pos- 
session of  the  library ;  that  is,  readily  giving  it  up  to 


102  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

any  legitimate  claimant."  I  found  the  books  of  no 
value  to  me,  and  they  surely  have  been  an  expense. 
I  tried,  later,  to  prevail  upon  Hearn  to  allow  me  to 
ship  them  to  him  in  Japan,  but  I  never  received  any 
replies  to  my  letters.  He  asked  for  the  catalog,  some 
of  the  old  books,  and  besides  these,  and  at  his  request, 
a  number  of  expensive  new  books  were  at  various 
times  bought  and  sent  to  him.  I  suspect  that  as  there 
was  not  a  book  on  Japan  in  the  collection,  and  as  he 
had  a  plethora  of  data  at  hand  such  as  he  wanted,  the 
library  gathered  with  so  much  love  and  enthusiasm 
was  no  longer  of  use  to  him,  especially  under  the 
conditions  of  his  life  there. 

Hearn  gained  strength  and  power  as  regards  both 
truth  and  art,  in  so  far  as  he  was  true  to  the  better  in 
himself;  all  his  trouble  and  his  weakness  were  born 
out  of  the  lower  self  he  would  not,  or  could  not,  sac- 
rifice. His  worship  of  the  blood-curdling  and  re- 
volting gave  him  some  temporary  vogue  among  the 
readers  of  yellow  newspaperdom,  but  not  until  that 
was  renounced  for  the  compromise  of  the  "odd  and 
ghostly"  did  he  begin  to  show  an  ability  to  reach 
something  more  worthy  in  human  nature  than  the  de- 
generate reporter  catered  to.  The  next  step  in  ad- 
vance was  the  cultivation  of  the  artistic  pornography 
of  the  sensualistic  French  story-writer.  Not  until 
he  renounced  this  did  he  once  more  come  to  the  some- 
thing of  more  use  to  the  reading  world  which  fills 


"Getting  a  Soul"  103 

the  Martinique  epoch.  His  disinclination  to  go  to 
Japan,  I  more  than  suspect,  was  owing  to  a  half 
consciousness  that  there  was  in  that  nation  too  much 
civilization,  too  good  character,  and  even  too  much 
religion  to  suit  the  tastes  which  had  been  uppermost 
in  motiving  his  past  literary  labors.  His  going  into 
utter,  illogical,  and  absurd  captivity  to  the  atheistic 
and  materialistic  philosophy  of  Herbert  Spencer  was 
a  sorry  sacrifice  of  his  nobler  office  and  better  destiny 
to  the  fate  that  relentlessly  dogged  his  footsteps.  He 
was  forced  into  all  the  humanity  and  beneficence 
possible  to  him  by  Japanese  restraint,  art,  and  truth. 
His  cries  of  disillusion  over  the  Japanese  were  largely 
the  anger  of  the  semi-barbaric  wanderer  held  by 
family  ties,  paternity,  etc.,  when  he  found  himself 
prevented  from  again,  seeking  the  far-away  tropical 
pseudo-paradises  of  peoples  but  one  remove  from 
savagery. 

In  the  pre-Japanese  periods  only  the  lurid,  the 
monstrous,  the  enormous,  only  hot  crime,  and  sexual 
passion,  could  excite  his  liveliest  interest,  and  all 
great  literature  was  as  much  ignored  as  if  it  did  not 
exist.  There  is  not  a  hint  in  all  he  did  that  he  had 
read  a  line  of  the  great  creators  of  literature, — the 
Greek  dramatists,  Dante,  Goethe,  Shakespere,  and  a 
hundred  more ;  he  could  not  give  time  to  read,  much 
less  study  them.  His  pretension  of  ability  to  teach 
English  literature  was  soon  recognized  even  by  the 


104  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Japanese,  and  it  is  well  that  over-zealous  friends  did 
not  secure  him  a  lectureship  at  Cornell  University. 
To  be  sure,  he  never  had  time  to  study  even  the 
history  of  his  own  science  and  art, — but  he  never 
would  have  done  so,  it  is  plain,  if  leisure  and  op- 
portunity had  been  offered  him.  The  ideal  and  the 
rewards  of  scholarship  never  entered  his  mind.  Per- 
haps it  was  best  for  his  peculiar  office  and  proficiency 
that  he  allowed  all  erudition  to  go  unlooked-upon. 
And  yet  if  he  had  been  possessed  of  sufficient  virility 
and  objectivity  of  mind  to  have  learned  the  Japanese 
language,  what  would  the  labor  not  have  been  worth  ? 
That  he  could  not  read  a  Japanese  book  or  newspaper 
after  fourteen  years  of  life  among  the  people  is  most 
disconcerting.  It  is  a  tribute  to  the  amazing  delicacy 
and  receptiveness  of  his  mind  that  while  he  could  not 
speak  to  his  wife  or  children  in  their  own  tongue,  he 
should  still  have  so  accurately  caught  the  Japanese 
spirit  and  so  admirably  conveyed  it  to  us. 

The  history  of  Hearn's  ghoulish  pleasure  in  the 
gruesome  and  sensualistic,  runs  from  the  tan-yard 
horror  and  Cincinnati  reportorial  days,  through  the 
translated  stories  of  the  New  Orleans  epoch,  to  his 
"St.  Anthony."  In  "Stray  Leaves"  it  is  but  little 
softened,  and  yet  the  atmosphere  is  brightening.  It 
glitters  and  flashes  like  vengeful  lightning  about  the 
clouds  of  his  mind  with  the  Martinique  epoch,  etc. ; 
but  in  the  Japanese  writing  even  the  "Mountain  of 


"Getting  a  Soul"  105 

Skulls"  and  other  stories  are  so  far  removed  from 
reality  that  our  disgust  sinks  to  a  smile  of  sighing 
wonder  that  the  gruesome  could  still  be  so  loved  by 
him.  It  is  only  a  few  of  the  brutal  and  a  small 
brutalized  public  that  seeks  Buch  contes  drolatiques 
(without  Balzac's  wit,  satire,  and  power,  of  course), 
and  so  again  perforce,  Hearn  was  weaned  from  his 
morbidities.  Dominated  by  his  developing  art  and 
also  by  the  need  to  sell  his  writings,  he  thus  rose, 
partly  by  the  command  of  his  readers,  to  the  choice  of 
less  and  less  repulsive  themes  and  methods,  and,  awed 
by  the  Japanese  spirit  of  gentleness  and  beauty,  he 
finally  endowed  their  national  soul-life  with  a  pris- 
matic glory  which  they  themselves  had  hardly  sus- 
pected. 

Hearn  deserted  the  god  of  religion,  and,  except  in 
one  respect,  he  was  faithless  to  the  god  of  ethics.  He 
was,  therefore,  without  any  divinity.  Eor  a  mind 
that  had  no  creative  ability,  that  must  have  its  sub- 
jects furnished  to  it,  a  mind  whose  sole  function  was 
to  color  the  data  chosen  or  given  from  without, — this 
inner  emptiness  could  only  be  deceived  by  but  could 
not  be  satisfied  with  the  inner  emptiness  of  Spen- 
cerism.  He  acknowledged  that  religion  was  the 
mother  of  all  civilization,  arts,  and  laws,  and  that  all 
social  systems,  arts,  and  laws,  antique  or  modern, 
were  begotten  and  nurtured  by  ethics, — and  yet  there 
was  no  reality  in,  no  reason  for  the  existence  of 


106  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

either  religion  or  ethics  in  this  world  of  mechanics 
and  of  fatalism,  grim  and  inexorable. 

Hearn  speaks  somewhere  of  his  aspiration  to  be 
considered  a  "thinker,"  and  once  he  praises  "science" 
as  a  source  of  data  for  working  into  the  art  forms  of 
his  beloved  poetic  prose.  But  science  to  him  was  as 
impossible  as  was  he  to  polite  society;  Spencer  gave 
him  leave,  he  thought,  to  consider  his  atheism,  irre- 
ligion,  and  sensualisticism  as  scientifically  authorized, 
and  logically  justified.  He  was  always  hankering 
after  the  old  heathen,  even  savage,  gods  of  his  father 
and  mother;  and  every  time  he  went  Fantee  with 
them,  he  came  back  to  a  saner  world  weakened  and 
still  more  at  war  with  himself.  He  always  sought  an 
impossible  world  where  Teutonic  worth  and  honor 
could  supply  a  decadent  Latin,  with  half-savage 
languor  and  never  failing  delights  of  the  senses  and 
of  art, — art  which,  in  the  last  analysis,  was  his  only 
god.  But  his  tragedy  was  that  he  always  hastened 
to  turn  his  god  into  a  fetich,  while  even  his  mind 
caught  disquieting  glimpses  of  the  awful  truth  that 
all  genuine  worship  abjures  fetichism.  As  sensual- 
ism is  the.  superstition  of  love,  so  f  etichistic  art  is  the 
superstition  of  true  esthetics. 

For  the  most  part,  minds  are  mechanical  not  chem- 
ical compoundings,  or  if  chemic,  they  are  in  very  un- 
stable equilibrium.  There  are  strange  and  wayward 
traits,  illogic  and  unfused  to  unity  with  the  others. 


"Getting  a  Soul"  107 

There  may  be  psychopathic  and  isolation  wards  in 
the  psyche,  "retreats/5  and  all  manner  of  diseases  of 
individual  organs.  Most  people  go  Fantee,  often  or 
seldom,  and  are  able  to  hide  their  fetichisms  from 
even  their  best  friends.  If  we  observe  ourselves  at 
all,  most  of  us  wonder  at  the  curious  mix  of  self -con- 
tradictories in  ourselves.  The  few  whose  souls  and 
bodies  are  fused  to  clear-cut  unity,  the  component 
metal  melted  to  harmony  in  the  foundry  of  Fate  and 
of  Purpose, — these  clang  loyally  in  absolute  and 
precise  tone-color.  In  commoner  folk  the  failure  of 
the  flux,  and  the  flaws  in  the  casting,  have  only  a 
social  significance,  but  with  the  Hearns,  with  thinkers 
and  writers,  the  affair  has  an  infinite  purport. 

Hearn  could  never  make  his  writings  and  his  art 
impulses  square  with  his  beloved  materialistic,  de- 
terministic philosophy.  He  did  not  believe  in  soul 
or  in  souls,  and  yet  his  soul  was  always  treat- 
ing of  souls,  and  showing  the  invisible  thread  of  con- 
tinuity which  links  souls  to  Soul.  Therefore  he  is 
always  happiest  when  his  daimon  breaks  from  the 
restraint  of  theory  and  fate  and  pictures  the  play 
of  free  spirit,  of  soul  unconquered  by  fate,  of  life 
victorious  over  death  in  some  sad  way  or  bright. 

Concerning  Hearn's  treatment  of  friends,  editors, 
and  publishers,  as  it  bears  sharply  upon  his  literary 
character  and  productivity,  as  little  as  may  or  must 
be  said :  He  was  under  bonds  to  Fate  to  abuse  worst 


108  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

the  majority  of  his  friends  who  were  most  magnan- 
imous, helpful,  and  kind  to  him  personally,  or  who 
were  most  discriminating  and  encouraging  toward  his 
art  and  artistic  ideals.  To  his  former  Cincinnati 
comrades,  except  the  old  printer-friend,  he  scarcely 
ever  wrote  after  he  left  them,  and  the  most  faithful 
of  these  recently  writes  me :  "I  never  pretended  to  he 
a  friend  to  him;  I  was  merely  one  to  whom  he  re- 
sorted when  all  the  rest  cast  him  out.  He  never 
found  me  wanting,  hut  he  got  few  letters  from  me, 
and  none  that  were  flattering."  "I  used  to  love 
Matas"  are  Hearn's  pitiful  words.  It  is  with  sorrow 
and  pain  that  we  note  the  sudden  cessation  in  1887 
of  the  letters  to  Krehbiel.  This  noble  friend  had 
drawn  from  Hearn  a  beautiful  world  of  play  and 
enduring  memories  and  one  may  be  more  than  sure 
that  it  was  not  Krehbiel  who  should  be  blamed. 
Baker  had  been  his  most  helpful  and  best  friend,  and 
yet  for  a  fancied  wrong  Hearn  wrote  him  a  letter 
filled  with  insult  and  ruffianism  which  a  gentleman 
could  not  answer,  hardly  forgive,  and  never  forget. 
Did  Hearn  know  anybody  of  character  in  the  West 
Indies  ?  To  the  greatest  of  American  editors,  the  one 
who  "discovered"  him  and  introduced  him  to  a 
national  and  international  audience,  who  treated  him 
with  a  sweet  and  gracious  benignity,  even  after  a 
shamelessness  that  is  indescribable, — to  this  good  man 
there  is  not  a  published  letter,  although  many,  and 


Getting  a  Soul"  109 


many  more,  must  exist.  One  day  while  at  my  house, 
Hearn  rushed  to  his  room,  seized  the  man's  picture  on 
the  wall,  tore  it  in  a  hundred  pieces,  and  danced  and 
spat  upon  it  in  a  furious  rage.  In  subsequent  letters 
to  me  he  explained  his  hatred, — how  he  broke  his  en- 
gagements, how  he  borrowed  money  from  his  loathed 
and  insulted  friend,  how  he  got  credit  through  him 
from  his  tailor,  etc.  Gently  the  abused  %one  bore  it 
all  and  without  the  least  remonstrance,  writing  me, 
"Hearn  has  utterly  cast  me  off;  I  was  loath  to  part 
with  him.77  Professor  Chamberlain  and  others  kind- 
ly explain  the  curious  morbid  psychology  which 
Hearn  had  exhibited  toward  them.  To  the  last,  love 
and  trust  breathed  from  Hearn7  s  letters  to  me,  and 
yet  I  learn  that  to  others  long  afterward  he  wrote  of 
me  with  bitterness  and  malevolent  injustice.  And 
yet  he  had  written  me  after  I  saw  him  for  the  last 
time,  in  this  way:  "Please  don't  write  me  at  all,  or 
expect  me  to  write,  for  some  months.  I  do  not  need 
any  money.  I  have  a  good  deal  on  my  mind,  and  am 
apt,  in  consequence,  to  do  very  stupid  or  very  unkind 
things  in  an  unlucky  moment."  And  then  he  wrote : 
"No,  dear  Gooley,  I  will  never  be  indifferent  to  you ! 
Never  think  that ;  I  understand  better  than  you  sup- 
pose. If  I  am  silent  at  intervals,  never  doubt  me, 
dear  teacher  and  brother;  and  you  will  find  every- 
thing come  right."  How  often  is  the  pathos  of  life 
sadly  exaggerated  by  the  giving  away  to  foolish,  need- 


110  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

less,  and  degrading  inherited  instincts  at  the  expense 
of  the  higher  life  and  usefulness !  As  to  some  who 
ludicrously  hoast  of  the  long  continuance  of  an  in- 
timate friendship,  there  are  many  letters  of  Hearn 
extant  and  unpublished  which  blow  out  that  vanity 
with  an  amusing  smile.  The  matter,  generally,  might 
not  have  so  real  an  importance  were  it  not  that  the 
publishing  of  literature  has  a  vast  deal  to  do  with 
literature,  and,  closely  examined,  Hearn's  quarrels 
with  editors,  publishers,  and  the  public,  is  a  matter 
that  reaches  out  astonishingly  both  as  regards  him- 
self, his  books,  and  the  interest  in  him,  as  well  as  be- 
yond the  question  of  Hearn  or  of  any  or  all  of  his 
friends.  Until  one  silent  man  consents  to  speak, — 
which  may  never  be — the  discussion  of  the  essence  of 
the  affair  cannot  be  set  forth  in  any  detail.  Passages 
in  Hearn's  letters  relating  thereto  should  never  have 
been  published  or  a  hundred  other  things  should  have 
been  as  frankly  published.  When  such  publicity 
shall  exist  the  reasons  will  be  manifest  why  one  pub- 
lisher destroyed  an  entire  fresh  edition  of  one  book 
of  Hearn,  why  another  acted  differently,  why  one  is 
praised  or  praises  himself,  why  others  are  blamed, 
why  some  are  silent  although  a  word  would  end  the 
injustice,  etc.  One  phase  may  be  noted  in  passing: 
— Whatever  Hearn's  rights  or  wrongs  as  to  the 
author's  relations  with  publishers  and  editors,  it  was 
beyond  the  ken  of  his  mind  that  one  who  may 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn  111 

gloriously  sacrifice  all  his  own  temporal  blessings  in 
striving  after  artistic  excellence,  has  no  right  to  ask 
the  same  altruism  of  those  engaged  in  the  publishing 
business.  Hearn  blamed  the  crude  world,  and,  for 
him,  its  representatives  in  i\\e  persons  of  editors 
and  their  masters,  the  publishers,  for  wishing  a  cer- 
tain kind  of  literature.  As  well  blame  the  bookseller 
for  not  sending  the  book  you  had  not  ordered.  He 
who  deliberately  chooses  to  give  the  world  a  literature 
he  knows  it  does  not  want,  must  accept  the  rejection 
and  editing  of  his  manuscripts,  and  the  absence  of 
the  world's  cheques.  He  chose  poverty  and  may  not 
abuse  them  who  allowed  his  choice  to  be  realized.  It 
is  sad  enough,  but  it  is  more  than  childish  to  grumble, 
more  than  ignoble  to  rail. 

The  search  for  "inspiration,"  as  he  called  it,  was 
with  Hearn  constant  and  lifelong.  Thus,  early  in 
his  career,  he  wrote  to  his  friend,  Dr.  Matas : — 

So  I  wait  for  the  poet's  Pentecost, — the  inspiration  of 
nature, — the  descent  of  the  Tongues  of  Fire.  And  I 
think  they  will  come  when  the  wild  skies  brighten,  and 
the  sun  of  the  Mexican  Gulf  reappears  for  his  worshippers, 
— with  hymns  of  wind  and  sea,  and  the  prayers  of  birds. 
When  one  becomes  bathed  in  this  azure  and  gold  air, — 
saturated  with  the  perfume  of  the  sea,  he  can't  help 
writing  something.  And  he  cannot  help  feeling  a  new 
sense  of  being.  The  Soul  of  the  Sea  mingles  with  his  own, 
is  breathed  into  him :  the  Spirit  that  moveth  over  the  deep 
is  the  Creator  indeed, — vivifying,  illuminating,  strength- 


112  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


ening.  I  really  feel  his  Religion, — the  sense  of  awe  that 
comes  to  one  in  some  great  silent  temple.  You  would  feel 
it  too  under  this  eternal  vault  of  blue,  when  the  weird 
old  Sea  is  touching  the  keys  of  his  mighty  organ 

And  again  he  wrote: — 

I  think  I  must  get  inspiration.  The  real  secret  of  art 
is  feeling.  The  highest  form  of  that  feeling  is  that  which 
the  splendor  of  Nature  gives, — the  thrill  and  awe  of  ter- 
rible beauty.  This  is  that  inexplicable  communication  of 
the  mind  with  the  Unknowable  that  has  created  the  re- 
ligious sense.  Said  a  friend  to  me  yesterday,  who  is.  not 
a  believer: — "I  stood  in  the  Alps  at  sunrise,  and  I  knew 
what  religion  meant."  And  I  think  that  passage  in  Wil- 
son on  Fetichism  superb  where  he  says  that  the  sight  of 
the  splendid  sky  first  created  the  religious  sense.  Ter- 
ribly perverted  this  sense  has  been,  no  doubt;  but  it 
belongs,  I  fancy,  to  those  things  which  are  eternal,  and 
will  have  many  a  glorious  avatar  before  our  planet  floats 
off  into  the  cemetery  of  dead  worlds.  It  is,  I  believe,  the 
most  powerful  possible  motive  for  true  modern  poetry, — 
in  harmony  with  science  and  scientific  faith;  and  that  is 
what  I  am  going  to  look  for. 

Such  quotations  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely, 
but  toward  the  end  they  become  begging,  and  moan- 
ing in  character.  The  "inspiration"  is  diligently 
hunted,  hungrily  waited  for;  at  last  the  failure  in 
its  coming  grows  pitiful  and  tragic.  For  what  is 
inspiration?  If,  with  the  fatal  fashion  of  our  fash- 
ionable fatalism,  we  think  "we  have  outgrown  all 
that,"  all  that  which  was  real  and  genuine  inspiring, 


" Getting  a  Soul"  113 

we  at  least  cannot  outgrow  that  which  bred  the  belief 
in  the  inspiring,  the  trust  in  spirit  and  in  spiritual 
truths  and  forces.  Is  it  all  primitive  childishness, 
this  faith  in  a  real  breathing-in  of  the  higher  life 
into  our  more  carnal  hearts  and  minds  ?  Far  from  it ! 
It  is  the  veriest  of  verities,  and  the  deniers  of  the  con- 
ditions of  inspiration  dry  up  the  springs  of  that 
"inspiration"  which  they  so  hungrily  seek.  The 
semblance  cannot  be  without  the  reality.  It  will  not 
come,  lasting  and  inexhaustible,  by  any  trick  of  lit- 
erary technic.  Out  of  the  light  of  common  day  is 
not  born  that  which  never  was  on  any  sea  or  shore. 
Place,  time,  circumstance,  are  not,  as  Hearn  thought, 
the  gods  of  "Inspiration."  "The  wind  bloweth 
where  it  listeth,"  and  even  a  heathen  god  would 
hardly  visit  the  altar  with  his  sacred  fire  if  the 
priests  mocked  at  the  power  and  the  very  existence 
of  the  deity.  It  is  most  plain  that  Hearn  early  and 
zealously  studied  the  Bible, — hundreds  of  allusions 
bear -witness  of  the  fact, — and  that  he  learned  from  it 
the  revivification  of  words,  the  use  of  phrase,  meta- 
phor, belief,  something  of  the  art  of  reaching  in 
toward  the  depths  of  men's  moral  and  religious 
nature  and  experience:  but  all,  just  so  evidently,  as 
a  literary  art,  a  tour  de  force,  the  skill  of  the  expert 
workman,  handling  them  as  symbols  for  the  sake  of 
the  skill,  while  smiling  scornfully  at  any  belief  in 
their  reality.  Language  is  the  most  spirit-like  crea- 


114  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

tion  of  man's  mind,  the  thing  nearest  him,  woven  out 
of  his  own  soul-substance,  instinct  with  his  life, 
haunted  with  his  love,  his  hate,  his  suffering.  Play- 
ing with  words,  using  them  as  art-stuff,  regardless  of 
the  experience  and  love  and  suffering  which  gave 
them  conceiving  and  gives  them  quickening,  is  likely 
to  hring  upon  the  artist  a  sad  revenge.  Pleading  in 
vain  for  "inspiration,"  Hearn  died  a  score  or  more 
of  years  before  he  should  have  died. 

It  should  be  emphasized  that  Hearn  had  but  one 
possible  way,  chosen  or  compelled,  to  make  a  living. 
His  terrible  myopia  shut  him  out  from  every  calling 
except  that  of  a  writer.  Moreover,  leaving  aside  the 
danger  to  his  little  vision  from  so  much  ocular  labor, 
he  had  other  and  almost  insurmountable  handicaps 
as  a  poet  or  maker  of  literature :  He  had  no  original 
thing  to  say,  for  he  was  entirely  without  creative 
power,  and  had  always  to  borrow  theme  and  plot. 
Then  he  had  never  seen  form,  knew  almost  nothing 
of  it  as  it  exists  out  there,  so  that  his  sole  technic  was 
that  of  a  colorist,  and  also  to  endow  our  dead  and 
dying  words  with  life, — a  "ghostly"  life  it  was,  and 
as  he  chose  it  to  be, — but  living  it  assuredly  was. 
That  he  over-colored  his  pictures,  that  he  over- 
sensualized  his  words,  of  this  there  is  no  question, — 
but  monotones  and  senescents  that  we  are,  let  us  not 
smile  too  superciliously!  Let  us  learn;  and  above 
all  let  us  enjoy! 


"Getting  a  Soul"  115 

For,  his  alone  was  the  palette  of  the  painter  of  the 
afterglow  of  Earth's  last  sunset.  And  his  the  unique 
miracle  of  clothing  with  the  hues  of  a  hopeless  rain- 
bow, the  faint  reverberations  of  bells  far  sunk  in  the 
wreck  and  wrack  of  ruined  centuries;  of  reintoning 
the  prayers  of  Nirvana-entering  souls ;  of  remoaning 
dear  ancient  and  expiring  griefs ;  of  seeing  with  shut 
eyes  the  sad  smiles  of  never-answered  loves  and  never- 
meeting  lovers.  With  him,  hushed,  we  harken  to 
Muezzin  BilaPs  call  from  his  tower,  to  the  broken 
sobs  of  a  dancing-girl's  passion,  or  to  the  plaintive 
beggings  of  dying  babes  for  the  cold  breasts  of  dead 
mothers. 


CHAPTER  VII 

"IN  GHOSTLY  JAPAN" 

PERHAPS  I  should  not  have  succeeded  in  getting 
Hearn  to  attempt  Japan  had  it  not  been  for  a  little 
book  that  fell  into  his  hands  during  the  stay  with  me. 
Beyond  question,  Mr.  Lowell's  volume  had  a  pro- 
found influence  in  turning  his  attention  to  Japan 
and  greatly  aided  me  in  my  insistent  urging  him  to 
go  there.  In  sending  the  book  Hearn  wrote  me  this 
letter: 

Gooley! — I  have  found  a  marvellous  book, — a  book  of 
books! — a  colossal,  splendid,  godlike  book.  You  must 
read  every  line  of  it.  Tell  me  how  I  can  send  it.  For 
heaven 's  sake  don 't  skip  a  word  of  it.  The  book  is  called 
"The  Soul  of  the  Far  East,"  but  its  title  is  smaller  than 

its  imprint'  HEARNEYBOY. 

P.  S. 

Let  something  else  go  to  H — ,  and  read  this  book 
instead.  May  God  eternally  bless  and  infinitely  person- 
alize the  man  who  wrote  this  book!  Please  don't  skip 
one  solitary  line  of  it,  and  don't  delay  reading  it, — 
because  something,  much!  is  going  to  go  out  of  this  book 
into  your  heart  and  life  and  stay  there!  I  have  just 
finished  this  book  and  feel  like  John  in  Patmos, — only  a 
sight  better.  He  who  shall  skip  one  word  of  this 
116 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  117 


book  let  his  portion  be  cut  off  and  his  name  blotted  out 
of  the  Book  of  Life.1 

There  is  not  much  to  say  about  the  Japanese 
period,  The  splendid  books  speak  for  themselves. 
There  is  little  in  the  almost  Valueless  letters  that  in- 
terest the  literature-lover  and  give  him  concern  about 
the  literature-maker.  There  is  one  short  page2  which 
is  worth  the  remainder  of  the  book.  The  develop- 
ment of  inborn  characteristics  goes  on,  despite  the 
grafted  soul,  almost  as  fatalistically  as  Hearn  would 
have  wished,  and  in  this  instance  in  accord- 
ance with  his  theory  of  the  unalterability  of  charac- 
ter. But  this  period  is  of  surpassing  interest  solely 
because  of  the  beautiful  books  and  articles  written. 
To  analyze  them  is  both  impossible  and  undesirable. 
They  are  for  our  enjoyment,  and  after  us  generations 
will  be  delighted  by  them. 

Hearn's  views  and  practices  as  regards  love  and 
the  feminine  are  not  of  sympathetic  interest  to  those 
who  think  that  monogamy  is  good  and  advisable.  He 
hopes  his  son  will  not  follow  in  his  father's  foot- 
steps as  regards  every  damozel  in  his  path,  and  in  this 

xMr.  Percival  Lowell's  book  soon  reached  me  containing  the 
inscription:  "To  George  M.  Gould,  with  best  love  of  his  spirit- 
ual pupil,  L.  H."  I  have  intentionally  retained  colloquialisms 
in  these  excerpts,  the  indications  of  our  familiarity,  etc.,  to 
give  a  glimpse  into  the  heart  of  the  affectionate  and  sweet- 
natured  man. 

"Life  and  Letters,  Vol.  II,  pp.  337  and  338. 


118  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

respect  become  the  "disgraceful  person  he  [the 
father]  used  to  be."  He  "half  suspects"  the  Oriental 
husband  is  right  in  loving  his  wife  least  of  all  others 
related  to  or  dependent  upon  him,  and  quotes  ap- 
provingly unquotable  things  about  the  laws  of 
(sexual)  nature,  managing,  more  suof  to  make  beauti- 
ful the  pursuit  of  beauty  "in  vain."  Than  the  other, 
the  woman-beauty  of  soul  is  the  lesser.  "It  doesn't 
make  a  man  any  happier  to  have  an  intellectual  wife. 
The  less  intellectual  the  more  lovable, — for  intel- 
lectual converse  a  man  can't  have  with  women." 
When  contemplating  legal  marriage  with  "his  wife" 
in  1892,  he  calculates  shrewdly  the  advantages  of  the 
plan.  He  arrived  in  Japan  in  1890  and  in  less  than 
two  years  "my  little  wife  and  I  have  saved  nearly 
2,000  Japanese  dollars  between  us."  When  he  has 
made  her  independent  he  will  quit  teaching,  and 
"wander  about  awhile  and  write  'sketches'  at  $10.00 
per  page."  In  1893  he  found  difficulties  in  register- 
ing the  birth  of  his  son.  Hearn  was  still  a  British 
subject.  If  the  boy  should  be  a  Japanese  citizen,  the 
registry  must  be  in  the  mother's  name;  if  in  the 
father's  name,  he  would  become  a  foreigner.  To  be- 
come a  Japanese  citizen  would  mean  for  Hearn  a 
great  reduction  in  his  salary  as  a  teacher  under  Gov- 
ernment pay.  "Why  was  I  so  foolish  as  to  have  a 
son?"  "Keally  7  don't  know."  In  1895  he  "cuts 
the  puzzle"  by  becoming  a  Japanese  citizen,  "losing 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  119 

all  chance  of  Government  employment  at  a  living 
salary."  Immediately  Hearn  "hopes  to  see  a  United 
Orient  yet  bound  into  one  strong  alliance  against  our 
cruel  Western  Civilization,"  "against  what  is  called 
Society  and  what  is  called  Civilization." 

For  those  who  boasted  of  being  his  friends,  it  seems 
an  astonishing  thing  that  they  should  make  Hearn 
portray  his  vices,  his  moral  nakedness,  so  publicly. 
Of  course  he  did  not  dream  of  the  expose.  It  is  to 
his  merit,  however,  that  he  would  place  the  truth 
boldly  and  baldly  before  his  friends.  He  confesses 
that  the  scandalous  parts  of  a  book  are  what  he 
likes  best,  that  he  is  "a  Fraud/7  "a  vile  Latin," 
etc., — "Vive  le  monde  antique!"  He  is  "not 
respectable."  "Carpets  —  pianos  —  windows  —  cur- 
tains— brass  bands — churches!  how  I  hate  them!  ! 
Would  I  had  been  born  savage ;  the  curse  of  civilized 
cities  is  upon  me."  He  admits  that  he  "cannot  un- 
derstand the  moral  side,  of  course,"  and  urges  that 
"the  most  serious  necessity  of  life  is  not  to  take  the 
moral  side  of  it  seriously.  We  must  play  with  it, 
as  with  an  hetaira."  It  is  needless  to  add  that  in 
this  composition  and  resolve  lay  Hearn's  weakness, 
his  tragedy,  and  his  missing  of  "greatness."  A  man 
so  willed  must  finally  see  that  it  is  the  source  of  piti- 
ful instabilities  and  waywardness.  "I  have  been  at 
heart  everything  by  turns."  He  learns  the  old  trick 
of  blaming  "Fate"  and  "the  other  fellow;"  he  is 


120  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

hard-pushed,  ignored,  starved,  morally  humiliated : — 
"the  less  a  man  has  to  do  with  his  fellow-men  the 
better;"  "it  becomes  plain  why  men  cannot  be  good 
to  one  another ;"  character  may  not  be  bettered  or 
changed;  "no  line  exists  between  life  and  not-life;" 
"likes  and  dislikes  never  depart;"  if  Spanish, 
Italian,  or  French  (instead  of  English,  German,  or 
American)  he  "can  be  at  home  with  a  villain,"  etc. 
Finally  there  comes  that  burst  of  frankness: — "I 
have  more  smallness  in  me  than  you  can  suspect. 
How  could  it  be  otherwise!  If  a  man  lives  like  a 
rat  for  twenty  or  twenty-five  years,  he  must  have 
acquired  something  of  the  disposition  peculiar  to 
house-rodents, — mustn't  he?"  Then  increase  the 
complaints  of  "treachery,"  the  wish  for  "justice," 
the  desire  to  go  away,  somewhere,  anywhere;  and 
the  limit  of  the  amazing  is  reached  in  praising  The 
Conservator  and  The  Whim  for  bravery  and  good- 
ness, and  in  hating  Virchow  thoroughly.  Was  Vir- 
chow  so  loathsome  because  this  great  scientist  found 
an  impassable  demarcation  between  life  and  the  not- 
life  ? — "all  cells  are  derived  from  cells."  Is  it  sur- 
prising that  his  old  imagined  enemies,  the  Jesuits, 
are  believed  to  be  hidden  every  place,  lurking  to 
thwart  every  ambition  or  success,  even  to  kill  him?1 
No  man  is  wholly  bad  who  loves  children,  none 

"Those  who  care  may  see  how  this  suspicion  obfuscates  his 
mind  in  an  article  against  some  of  Hearn's  statements,  by  Henry 
Thurston,  in  The  Messenger,  January,  1906. 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  121 

wholly  good  who  does  not  love  them.  In  a  nation 
of  child-lovers,  as  Hearn's  Japanese  writings  bear 
witness,  he  began  to  catch  glimpses  of  truth  hitherto 
unrecognized.  Concerning  his  eldest  son,  (a  fourth 
child  was  expected  in  1903)  Hearn  wrote:  "JSFo  man 
can  possibly  know  what  life  means  until  he  has  a 
child  and  loves  it.  And  then  the  whole  Universe 
changes, — and  nothing  will  ever  again  seem  exactly 
as  it  seemed  before."  Naturally  he  was  drawn  to 
the  rich  child-lore  and  fairy  tales  of  Japan.  With 
great  difficulty  I  have  secured  copies  of  a  number  of 
fairy  stories  edited  by  him  and  published  in  Japan 
by  T.  Hasegawa,  Tokyo,  in  a  style  beautiful  and 
dainty  beyond  superlatives.  As  mine  are  probably 
the  only  ones  in  our  country,  I  have  ventured  to  copy 
herewith  two  of  the  tales : — 

THE  OLD  WOMAN  WHO  LOST  HER  DUMPLING 

Long,  long  ago,  there  was  a  funny  old  woman,  who 
liked  to  laugh  and  to  make  dumplings  of  rice-flour. 

One  day,  while  she  was  preparing  some  dumplings  for 
dinner,  she  let  one  fall;  and  it  rolled  into  a  hole  in  the 
earthen  floor  of  her  little  kitchen  and  disappeared.  The 
old  woman  tried  to  reach  it  by  putting  her  hand  down 
the  hole,  and  all  at  once  the  earth  gave  way,  and  the  old 
woman  fell  in. 

She  fell  quite  a  distance,  but  was  not  a  bit  hurt;  and 
when  she  got  up  on  her  feet  again,  she  saw  that  she  was 
standing  on  a  road,  just  like  the  road  before  her  house. 
It  was  quite  light  down  there;  and  she  could  see  plenty 


122  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

of  rice-fields,  but  no  one  in  them.  How  all  this  happened, 
I  cannot  tell  you.  But  it  seems  that  the  old  woman  had 
fallen  into  another  country. 

The  road  she  had  fallen  upon  sloped  very  much;  so, 
after  having  looked  for  her  dumpling  in  vain,  she  thought 
it  must  have  rolled  further  away  down  the  slope.  She 
ran  down  the  road  to  look,  crying: 

' '  My  dumpling,  my  dumpling !  Where  is  that  dumpling 
of  mine?" 

After  a  little  while  she  saw  a  stone  Jizo  standing  by 
the  roadside,  and  she  said: 

' '  0  Lord  Jizo,  did  you  see  my  dumpling  ? ' ' 

Jizo  answered: 

"Yes,  I  saw  your  dumpling  rolling  by  me  down  the 
road.  But  you  had  better  not  go  any  farther,  because 
there  is  a  wicked  Oni  living  down  there,  who  eats  people. ' ' 

But  the  old  woman  only  Laughed,  and  ran  on  further 
down  the  road,  crying:  "My  dumpling,  my  dumpling! 
Where  is  that  dumpling  of  mine?"  And  she  came  to 
another  statue  of  Jizo,  and  asked  it: 

"0  kind  Lord  Jizo,  did  you  see  my  dumpling?" 

And  Jizo  said: 

"Yes,  I  saw  your  dumpling  go  by  a  little  while  ago. 
But  you  must  not  run  any  further,  because  there  is  a 
wicked  Oni  down  there,  who  eats  people." 

But  she  only  laughed,  and  ran  on,  still  crying  out: 
"My  dumpling,  my  dumpling!  Where  is  that  dumpling 
of  mine  ? ' '  And  she  came  to  a  third  Jizo,  and  asked  it : 

"0  dear  Lord  Jizo,  did  you  see  my  dumpling?" 

But  Jizo  said: 

"Don't  talk  about  your  dumpling  now.  Here  is  the 
Oni  coming.  Squat  down  here  behind  my  sleeve,  and 
don't  make  any  noise." 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  123 

Presently  the  Oni  came  very  close,  and  stopped  and 
bowed  to  Jizo,  and  said: 

"Good-day,  Jizo  San!" 

Jizo  said  good-day,  too,  very  politely. 

Then  the  Oni  suddenly  snuffed  the  air  two  or  three 
times  in  a  suspicious  way,  and  cried  out:  "Jizo  San, 
Jizo  San!  I  smell  a  smell  of  mankind  somewhere — don't 
you?" 

"Oh!"  said  Jizo,  "perhaps  you  are  mistaken." 

1 '  No,  no ! "  said  the  Oni,  after  snuffing  the  air  again,  ' '  I 
smell  a  smell  of  mankind." 

Then  the  old  woman  could  not  help  laughing,  "Te-he- 
he!" — and  the  Oni  immediately  reached  down  his  big 
hairy  hand  behind  Jizo's  sleeve,  and  pulled  her  out, — still 
laughing,  ' '  Te-he-he ! ' ' 

"Ah!  ha!"  cried  the  Oni. 

Then  Jizo  said: 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  that  good  old  woman? 
You  must  not  hurt  her." 

"I  won't,"  said  the  Oni.  "But  I  will  take  her  home 
with  me  to  cook  for  us." 

"Very  well,"  said  Jizo;  "but  you  must  really  be  kind 
to  her.  If  you  are  not  I  shall  be  very  angry." 

"I  won't  hurt  her  at  all,"  promised  the  Oni;  "and  she 
will  only  have  to  do  a  little  work  for  us  every  day.  Good- 
bye, Jizo  San." 

Then  the  Oni  took  the  old  woman  far  down  the  road, 
till  they  came  to  a  wide  deep  river,  where  there  was  a 
boat,  and  took  her  across  the  river  to  his  house.  It  was 
a  very  large  house.  He  led  her  at  once  into  the  kitchen, 
and  told  her  to  cook  some  dinner  for  himself  and  the 
other  Oni  who  lived  with  him.  And  he  gave  her  a  small 
wooden  rice-paddle,  and  said: 


124  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"You  must  always  put  only  one  grain  of  rice  into  the 
pot,  and  when  you  stir  that  one  grain  of  rice  in  the  water 
with  this  paddle,  the  grain  will  multiply  until  the  pot  is 
fall." 

So  the  old  woman  put  just  one  rice-grain  into  the  pot, 
as  the  Oni  told  her,  and  began  to  stir  it  with  the  paddle; 
and,  as  she  stirred,  the  one  grain  became  two, — then  four, 
— then  eight, — then  sixteen,  thirty-two,  sixty-four,  and  so 
on.  Every  time  she  moved  the  paddle  the  rice  increased 
in  quantity;  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  great  pot  was  full. 

After  that,  the  funny  old  woman  stayed  a  long  time  in 
the  house  of  the  Oni,  and  every  day  cooked  food  for  him 
and  for  all  his  friends.  The  Oni  never  hurt  or  frightened 
her,  and  her  work  was  made  quite  easy  by  the  magic 
paddle — although  she  had  to  cook  a  very,  very  great  quan- 
tity of  rice,  because  an  Oni  eats  much  more  than  any 
human  being  eats. 

But  she  felt  lonely,  and  always  wished  very  much  to 
go  back  to  her  own  little  house,  and  make  her  dumplings. 
And  one  day,  when  the  Oni  were  all  out  somewhere,  she 
thought  she  would  try  to  run  away. 

She  first  took  the  magic  paddle,  and  slipped  it  under 
her  girdle;  and  then  she  went  down  to  the  river.  No  one 
saw  her;  and  the  boat  was  there.  She  got  into  it,  and 
pushed  off;  and  as  she  could  row  very  well,  she  was  soon 
far  away  from  the  shore. 

But  the  river  was  very  wide;  and  she  had  not  rowed 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  way  across,  when  the  Oni,  all 
of  them,  came  back  to  the  house. 

They  found  that  their  cook  was  gone,  and  the  magic 
paddle,  too.  They  ran  down  to  the  river  at  once,  and 
saw  the  old  woman  rowing  away  very  fast. 

Perhaps  they  could  not  swim:  at  all  events  they  had  no 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  125 

boat;  and  they  thought  the  only  way  they  could  catch  the 
funny  old  woman  would  be  to  drink  up  all  the  water  of 
the  river  before  she  got  to  the  other  bank.  So  they  knelt 
down,  and  began  to  drink  so  fast  that  before  the  old 
woman  was  half  way  over,  the  water  had  become  quite  low. 

But  the  old  woman  kept  on  rowing  until  the  water  had 
got  so  shallow  that  the  Oni  stopped  drinking,  and  began 
to  wade  across.  Then  she  dropped  her  oar,  took  the 
magic  paddle  from  her  girdle,  and  shook  it  at  the  Oni,  and 
made  such  funny  faces  that  the  Oni  all  burst  out  laughing. 

But  the  moment  they  laughed,  they  could  not  help 
throwing  up  all  the  water  they  had  drunk,  and  so  the 
river  became  full  again.  The  Oni  could  not  cross;  and 
the  funny  old  woman  got  safely  over  to  the  other  side, 
and  ran  away  up  the  road  as  fast  as  she  could. 

She  never  stopped  running  until  she  found  herself  at 
home  again.  After  that  she  was  very  happy;  for  she 
could  make  dumplings  whenever  she  pleased.  Besides,  she 
had  the  magic  paddle  to  make  rice  for  her.  She  sold  her 
dumplings  to  her  neighbors  and  passengers,  and  in  quite 
a  short  time  she  became  rich. 

THE  BOY  WHO  DREW  CATS 

A  long,  long  time  ago,  in  a  small  country- village  in 
Japan,  there  lived  a  poor  farmer  and  his  wife,  who  were 
very  good  people.  They  had  a  number  of  children,  and 
found  it  very  hard  to  feed  them  all.  The  elder  son  was 
strong  enough  when  only  fourteen  years  old  to  help  his 
father;  and  the  little  girls  learned  to  help  their  mother 
almost  as  soon  as  they  could  walk. 

But  the  youngest  child,  a  little  boy,  did  not  seem  to  be 
fit  for  hard  work.  He  was  very  clever, — cleverer  than  all 
his  brotKers  and  sisters ;  but  he  was  quite  weak  and  small, 


126  Concerning  JLafcadio  Hearn 

and  people  said  he  could  never  grow  very  big.  So  his 
parents  thought  it  would  be  better  for  him  to  become  a 
priest  than  to  become  a  farmer.  They  took  him  with 
them  to  the  village-temple  one  day,  and  asked  the  good 
old  priest  who  lived  there,  if  he  would  have  their  little 
boy  for  his  acolyte,  and  teach  him  all  that  a  priest  ought 
to  know. 

The  old  man  spoke  kindly  to  the  lad,  and  asked  him 
some  hard  questions.  So  clever  were  the  answers  that  the 
priest  agreed  to  take  the  little  fellow  into  the  temple  as 
an  acolyte,  and  to  educate  him  for  the  priesthood. 

The  boy  learned  quickly  what  the  old  priest  taught  him, 
and  was  very  obedient  in  most  things.  But  he  had  one 
fault.  He  liked  to  draw  cats  during  study-hours,  and  to 
draw  cats  even  when  cats  ought  not  to  have  been  drawn 
at  all. 

Whenever  he  found  himself  alone,  he  drew  cats.  He 
drew  them  on  the  margins  of  the  priest's  books,  and  on 
all  the  screens  of  the  temple,  and  on  the  walls,  and  on 
the  pillars.  Several  times  the  priest  told  him  this  was 
not  right;  but  he  did  not  stop  drawing  cats.  He  drew 
them  because  he  could  not  really  help  it.  He  had  what  is 
called  "the  genius  of  an  artist/'  and  just  for  that  reason 
he  was  not  quite  fit  to  be  an  acolyte; — a  good  acolyte 
should  study  books. 

One  day  after  he  had  drawn  some  very  clever  pictures 
of  cats  upon  a  paper  screen,  the  old  priest  said  to  him 
severely:  "My  boy,  you  must  go  away  from  this  temple 
at  once.  You  will  never  make  a  good  priest,  but  perhaps 
you  will  become  a  great  artist.  Now  let  me  give  you  a 
last  piece  of  advice,  and  be  sure  you  never  forget  it: 
'Avoid  large  places  at  night; — keep  to  small.'  ' 

The  boy  did  not  know  what  the  priest  meant  by  saying, 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  127 

" Avoid  large  places, — keep  to  small."  He  thought  and 
thought,  while  he  was  tying  up  his  little  bundle  of  clothes 
to  go  away ;  but  he  could  not  understand  those  words,  and 
he  was  afraid  to  speak  to  the  priest  any  more,  except  to 
say  good-bye. 

He  left  the  temple  very  sorrowfully,  and  began  to  won- 
der what  he  should  do.  If  he  went  straight  home,  he  felt 
sure  his  father  would  punish  him  for  having  been  dis- 
obedient to  the  priest:  so  he  was  afraid  to  go  home.  All 
at  once  he  remembered  that  at  the  next  village,  twelve 
miles  away,  there  was  a  very  big  temple.  He  had  heard 
there  were  several  priests  at  that  temple;  and  he  made 
up  his  mind  to  go  to  them  and  ask  them  to  take  him  for 
their  acolyte. 

Now  that  big  temple  was  closed  up,  but  the  boy  did  not 
know  this  fact.  The  reason  it  had  been  closed  up  was 
that  a  goblin  had  frightened  the  priests  away,  and  had 
taken  possession  of  the  place.  Some  brave  warriors  had 
afterwards  gone  to  the  temple  at  night  to  kill  the  goblin; 
but  they  had  never  been  seen  alive  again.  Nobody  had 
ever  told  these  things  to  the  boy ;  so  he  walked  all  the  way 
to  the  village,  hoping  to  be  kindly  treated  by  the  priests. 

When  he  got  to  the  village,  it  was  already  dark,  and  all 
the  people  were  in  bed;  but  he  saw  the  big  temple  on  a 
hill  at  the  other  end  of  the  principal  street,  and  he  saw 
there  was  a  light  in  the  temple.  People  who  tell  the  story 
say  the  goblin  used  to  make  that  light,  in  order  to  tempt 
lonely  travellers  to  ask  for  shelter.  The  boy  went  at  once 
to  the  temple,  and  knocked.  There  was  no  sound  inside. 
He  knocked  and  knocked  again;  but  still  nobody  came. 
At  last  he  pushed  gently  at  the  door,  and  was  quite  glad 
to  find  that  it  had  not  been  fastened.  So  he  went  in,  and 
saw  a  lamp  burning, — but  no  prkst. 


128  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

He  thought  some  priest  would  be  sure  to  come  very 
soon,  and  he  sat  down  and  waited.  Then  he  noticed  that 
everything  in  the  temple  was  grey  with  dust,  and  thickly 
spun  over  with  cobwebs.  So  he  thought  to  himself  that 
the  priests  would  certainly  like  to  have  an  acolyte,  to 
keep  the  place  clean.  He  wondered  why  they  had  allowed 
everything  to  get  so  dusty.  What  most  pleased  him,  how- 
ever, were  some  big  white  screens,  good  to  paint  cats  upon. 
Though  he  was  tired,  he  looked  at  once  for  a  writing-box, 
and  found  one,  ground  some  ink,  and  began  to  paint  cats. 

He  painted  a  great  many  cats  upon  the  screens;  and 
tken  he  began  to  feel  very,  very  sleepy.  He  was  just  on 
the  point  of  lying  down  to  sleep  beside  one  of  the  screens, 
when  he  suddenly  remembered  the  words:  " Avoid  large 
places; — keep  to  small." 

The  temple  was  very  large;  he  was  all  alone;  and  as  he 
thought  of  these  words — though  he  could  not  quite  under- 
stand them — he  began  to  feel  for  the  first  time  a  little 
afraid ;  and  he  resolved  to  look  for  a  small  place  in  which 
to  sleep.  He  found  a  little  cabinet,  with  a  sliding  door, 
and  went  into  it,  and  shut  himself  up.  Then  he  lay  down 
and  fell  fast  asleep. 

Very  late  in  the  night  he  was  awakened  by  a  most 
terrible  noise, — a  noise  of  fighting  and  screaming.  It  was 
so  dreadful  that  he  was  afraid  even  to  look  through  a 
chink  of  the  little  cabinet:  he  lay  very  still,  holding  his 
breath  for  fright. 

The  light  that  had  been  in  the  temple  went  out ;  but  the 
awful  sounds  continued,  and  became  more  awful,  and  all 
the  temple  shook.  After  a  long  time  silence  came;  but 
the  boy  was  still  afraid  to  move.  He  did  not  move  until 
the  light  of  the  morning  sun  shone  into  the  cabinet 
through  the  chinks  of  the  little  door. 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  129 

Then  he  got  out  of  his  hiding-place  very  cautiously,  and 
looked  about.  The  first  thing  he  saw,  lying  dead  in  the 
middle  of  it,  an  enormous  monster  rat, — a  goblin-rat, — 
bigger  than  a  cow! 

But  who  or  what  could  have  killed  it?  There  was  no 
man  or  other  creature  to  be  seen.  Suddenly  the  boy  ob- 
served that  the  mouths  of  all  the  cats  he  had  drawn  the 
night  before,  were  red  and  wet  with  blood.  Then  he  knew 
that  the  goblin  had  been  killed  by  the  cats  which  he  had 
drawn.  And  then  also,  for  the  first  time,  he  understood 
why  the  wise  old  priest  had  said  to  him:  "Avoid  large 
places  at  night; — keep  to  small. M 

Afterwards  that  boy  became  a  very  famous  artist. 
Some  of  the  cats  which  he  drew  are  still  shown  to  trav- 
ellers in  Japan. 

At  once  upon  reaching  Japan  (it  is  plain  Heara 
never  forgave  me  for  compelling  him  to  go)  begin  the 
complaints  of  the  downright  hard  work  of  writing, 
consequent  upon  the  loss  of  ideals.  He  breaks  with 
publishers — an  oldtime  story;  he  is  losing  his  in- 
spiration, and  his  only  bope  is  tbat  it  will  return  to 
bim  again;  in  any  Latin  country  he  could  at  once, 
be  thinks,  get  back  tbe  mucb  coveted  "thrill,"  or 
frisson.  He  would  at  last  even  relisb  the  bated 
United  States.  From  the  beginning  he  tires  of  the 
Japanese  character,  and  grows  more  and  more  tired 
the  longer  he  stays;  it  has  no  depth,  this  thin  soul- 
stream;  it  is  incapable  of  long  sustained  effort,  pro- 
longed study;  he  cannot  much  longer  endure  Japa- 
nese officialism;  and  the  official  "is  something  a  good 


130  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

deal  lower  than  a  savage  and  meaner  than  the 
straight-out  Western  rough.77  He  would  wish  never 
to  write  a  line  again  ahout  any  Japanese  subjects. 
Things  finally  came  to  such  a  pass  that  the  only  suc- 
cessful stimulus  to  work  was  that  some  one  should 
do  or  say  something  horribly  mean  to  him,  and  the 
force  of  the  hurt  could  be  measured  in  the  months  or 
years  of  resultant  labor.  As  none  ever  did  a  mean 
thing  to  him,  one  may  suspect  that  the  psychology  of 
his  sudden  enmities  toward  others  was  that  he  must 
perforce  imagine  that  he  had  been  "horribly"  treated. 

The  old  Wanderlust,  never  wholly  absent,  returns 
strongly  upon  him ;  in  less  than  a  year  he  dreams  of 
leaving  Japan  and  his  wife,  and  of  "wandering  about 
awhile;77  he  projects  "a  syndicate77  whereby  he  may 
go  to  Java,  (rather  than  Manila,  where  the  Jesuits 
were)  or,  "a  French  colony, — Tonkin,  Noumea,  or 
Pondicherry.77  A  tropical  trip  is  planned  for  six 
months  of  every  year.  But  the  "butterfly-lives77  de- 
pendent upon  him  prevent,  of  course.  He  always 
spoke  of  returning  often.  At  the  last  there  is  a 
savage  growl  that  after  thirteen  years  of  work  for 
Japan,  in  which  he  had  sacrificed  everything  for  her, 
he  was  "driven  out  of  the  service  and  practically 
banished  from  the  country." 

Hearn7s  nostalgia  for  the  nowhere  or  the  any- 
where was  only  conquered  by  death.  In  1898  the 
logic  of  his  life,  of  his  misfortune,  and  character, 


"In  Ghostly  Japan"  131 

begins  to  grow  plainer,  and  lie  "fears  being  blinded 
or  maimed  so  as  to  prove  of  no  further  use."  It 
seems  that  if  he  had  been  able  to  do  what  he  tried 
so  often,  and  longed  so  fervently  to  do,  he  would  have 
run  away  into  the  known  or  unknown  leaving  chil- 
dren, wife,  and  all  the  ties  that  bound  him  to  any 
orderly  life.  His  vision  had  become  almost  useless ; 
he  had  lost  his  lectureship;  more  and  more  it  grew 
impossible  to  coax  or  force  out  of  his  mind  such 
beautiful  things  as  in  younger  days;  the  Furies  of 
his  atheism,  pessimism,  and  lovelessness  were  close' on 
his  track;  the  hope  of  lectureships  in  the  United 
States  had  failed, — nothing  was  left,  nothing  except 
one  thing,  which,  chosen  or  not,  came  at  the  age 
of  fifty-four. 

Lessing  has  said  that  "Kaphael  would  have  been 
the  great  painter  he  was  even  if  he  had  been  born 
without  arms,"  and  Burke  has  told  of  a  poet  "blind 
from  birth  who  nevertheless  could  describe  visible 
objects  with  a  spirit  and  justness  excelled  by  few 
men  blessed  with  sight."  What  irony  of  Fate  it  is 
that  one  almost  blind  should  teach  us  non-users  of 
our  eyes  the  wonder  and  glory  of  color ;  that  the  irre- 
ligious one  should  quicken  our  faith  in  the  imma- 
terial and  unseen ;  that  a  sensualist  should  strengthen 
our  trust  in  the  supersensual ;  that  one  whose  body 
and  life  were  unbeautiful  should  sing  such  exquisite 
songs  of  silent  beauty  that  our  straining  ears  can 


132  Concerning  Laf cadio  Hearn 

hardly  catch  the  subtle  and  unearthly  harmonies! 
For  Hearn  is  another  of  many  splendid  illustrations 
of  the  old  truth  that  a  man's  spirit  may  be  more 
philosophic  than  his  philosophy,  more  scientific  than 
his  science,  more  religious  than  his  creed,  more 
divine  than  his  divinity. 


CHAPTER  VIH 

AS  A  POET 

THAT  Hearn  was  a  true  poet  none  will  deny,  but 
it  was  one  of  the  frequent  seeming  illogicalities  of 
his  character  that  he  had  no  love  of  metric  or  rhymed 
poetry.  I  doubt  if  there  is  a  single  volume  of  such 
poetry  in  his  library,  and  I  never  heard  him  repeat 
a  line  or  stanza,  and  never  knew  him  to  read  a  page 
of  what  is  called  poetry.  I  suspect  the  simple 
reason  was  that  his  necessities  compelled  him  rigidly 
to  exclude  everything  from  his  world  of  thought 
which  did  not  offer  materials  for  the  remunerating 
public.  He  had  to  make  a  living,  and  whence  to- 
morrow's income  should  come  was  always  a  vital  con- 
cern. Poetry  of  the  metric  and  rhymed  sort  does  not 
make  bread  and  butter;  hence  there  was  no  time  to 
consider  even  the  possibility  of  "cultivating  the 
muses  on  a  little  oatmeal." 

Of  poetry  he  once  wrote: — "The  mere  ideas  and 
melody  of  a  poem  seem  to  me  of  small  moment  un- 
less the  complex  laws  of  versification  be  strictly 
obeyed."  The  dictum,  considering  its  source,  is 
exquisitely  ludicrous;  for  Hearn  poetry  could  not  be 
coined  into  dollars,  even  if  he  had  had  the  mind  and 
heart  to  learn  anything  of  "the  complex  laws  of 
versification."  Elsewhere  he  excused  his  manifest 

133 


134  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

utter  ignorance  of  poetry  and  want  of  poetic  ap- 
preciation by  saying  that  there  is  so  little  really  good 
poetry  that  it  is  easy  to  choose.  He  confessed  his 
detestation  of  Wordsworth,  Shelley,  and  Keats,  pre- 
ferring Dobson,  Watson,  and  Lang.  "Of  Words- 
worth— well  I  should  smile!"  "Refined  poetry"  he 
held  of  little  or  no  value,  but  he  found  the  "vulgar" 
songs  of  coolies,  fishermen,  etc.,  very  true  and  beauti- 
ful poetry.  He  vainly  tried  to  translate  some  of 
Gautier's  poems.  He  attempted  original  verse-mak- 
ing but  a  few  times,  and  from  my  scrap-book  I  re- 
produce one  of  the  results,  kindly  furnished  me  by 
Mr.  Alexander  Hill,  of  Cincinnati,  to  whom  it  was 
given  by  Mr.  Tunison.  Perhaps  it  was  printed  in 
Forest  and  Stream. 

A  CREOLE  BOAT  SONG 

Hot  shines  the  sun  o'er  the  quivering  land, 

No  wind  comes  up  from  the  sea, 
Silent  and  stark  the  pine  woods  stand, 
And  the  mock-bird  sleeps  in  the  Mayhaw  tree, 
Where,  overhung  with  brier  and  vine 
The  placid  waters  slip  and  shine 
And  dimple  to  thy  lover's  view — 
La  belle  riviere  de  Calcasieu. 

Under  the  bending  cypress  trees, 
Bedecked  with  pendulous  cool  gray  moss 

That  woos  in  vain  the  recreant  breeze 
And  silently  mourns  its  loss. 


As  a  Poet  135 


With  drowsy  eye,  in  my  little  boat 
I  dreamily  lie,  and  lazily  float 
Lulled  by  the  thrush 's  soft  Te-rue — 
On  La  belle  riviere  de  Calcasieu. 


A  heron  stands,  like  a  gho'st  in  gray, 

Knee-deep  'mongst  the  bending  water  lilies, 
And  yellow  butterflies  lightly  play 

'Midst  the  blooms  of  fragrant  amaryllis; 
The  swift  kingfisher  winds  his  reel, 
Saying  his  grace  for  his  noonday  meal, 
And  a  hawk  soars  up  to  the  welkin  blue 
O'er  La  belle  riviere  de  Calcasieu. 


Across  the  point,  where  the  ferry  plies, 

I  hear  the  click  of  the  boatman's  oar, 
And  his  Creole  song,  with  its  quavering  rise 
Ee-echoes  soft  from  shore  to  shore; 

And  this  is  the  rhyme  that  he  idly  sings 
As  his  boat  at  anchor  lazily  swings, 
For  the  day  is  hot,  and  passers  few 
On  La  belle  riviere  de  Calcasieu. 


'  I  ain  't  got  time  for  make  merry,  me 

I  ain't  got  time  for  make  merry 
My  HIP  gall  waitin'  at  de  River  of  Death 

To  meet  her  ole  dad  at  de  ferry. 
*        She  gwine  be  dere  wid  de  smile  on  her  face, 
Like  the  night  she  died,  when  all  de  place 
Was  lit  by  the  moonbeams  shiverin'  troo 
La  belle  riviere  de  Calcasieu. 


136  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"0  sing  dat  song!     0  sing  dat  song! 
I  ain't  got  time  for  make  merry! 
De  angel  come  'fore  berry  long, 
And  carr'  me  o'er  de  ferry! 

He  come  wid  de  whirlwind  in  de  night — 
He  come  wid  the  streak  of  de  morning  light — 
He  find  me  ready — yass,  dass  true — 
By  La  belle  riviere  de  Calcasieu. 


;Den  who  got  time  for  make  merry,  ehf 

Den  who  got  time  for  make  merry? 
De  fire  burn  up  de  light  'ood  tree, 
De  bird  eat  up  de  berry. 

Long  time  ago  I  make  Voudoo, 
An*  I  dance  Calinda  strong  and  true, 
But  de  Lord  he  pierce  me  troo  and  troo 
On  La  belle  riviere  de  Calcasieu." 


In  the  "Watkin  letters,  Hearn  transcribes  a  poem  of 
six  stanzas  written  by  himself  for  the  decoration  of 
the  soldiers'  graves  at  Chalmette  Cemetery  in  1878. 

Far  more  successful,  for  obvious  reasons,  was  an 
attempt  at  echoing  a  bit  of  Eastern  fancy.  A 
strange,  gruesome,  Oriental  being  had  caught  his  eye 
in  New  Orleans,  who  translated  for  him  some 
characteristic  Eastern  verses.  Hearn  thus  rendered 
them  in  English1  :  — 


Hearn's  manuscript  copy  through  the  kindness  again 
of  Mr.  Tunison  and  Mr.  Hill. 


As  a  Poet  137 


THE   RUSE 
From  Amaron  Satacum 

Late  at  night  the  lover  returns  unlooked-for, 
Full  of  longing,  after  that  cruel  absence; — 
Finds  his  darling  by  her  women  surrounded; 
Enters  among  them : — 

Only  sees  his  beautiful  one,  his  idol, 
Speaks  no  word,  but  watches  her  face  in  silence, 
Looks  with  eyes  of  thirst  and  with  lips  of  fever 
Burning  for  kisses. 

Late  it  is;  and,  nevertheless,  the  women, 
Still  remaining  weary  his  ears  with  laughter, 
Prattling  folly,  tantalizing  his  longing — 
Teasing  his  patience. 

Love  weaves  ruse  in  answer  to  gaze  beseeching ; — 
Shrill  she  screams:    "0  heaven! — What  insect  stings 

so!" 

And  with  sudden  waft  of  her  robe  outshaken, 
Blows  the  vile  light  out. 

I  find  the  following  verses  in  his  scrap-book  of  the 
New  Orleans  period1: — 

THE   MUMMY 

(After  the  French  of  Louis  Bouilhet) 
Startled, — as  by  some  far  faint  din 

Of  azure-lighted  worlds,  from  sleep, 
The  Mummy,  trembling,  wakes  within 

The  hypogeum's  blackest  deep, — 

July  11,  1885. 


138  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


And  murmurs  low,  with  slow  sad  voice: 
' '  Oh !  to  be  dead  and  still  endure ! — 

Well  may  the  quivering  flesh  rejoice 
That  feels  the  vulture's  gripe  impure! 

"Seeking  to  enter  this  night  of  death, 

Each  element  knocks  at  my  granite  door: — 

'We  are  Earth  and  Fire  and  Air, — the  breath 
Of  Winds, — the  Spirits  of  sea  and  shore. 

"  'Into  the  azure,  out  of  the  gloom, 

Rise! — let  thine  atoms  in  light  disperse! — 
Blend  with  the  date-palm  's  emerald  plume ! — 
Scatter  thyself  through  the  universe! 

"  'We  shall  bear  thee  far  over  waste  and  wold: 

Thou  shalt  be  lulled  to  joyous  sleep 
By  leaves  that  whisper  in  light  of  gold, 
By  murmur  of  fountains  cool  and  deep. 

"  'Come! — perchance  from  thy  dungeon  dark 

Infinite  Nature  may  wish  to  gain 
For  the  godlike  Sun  another  spark, 
Another  drop  for  the  diamond  rain. ' 


"Woe!  mine  is  death  eternal!    ....    and 

I  feel  Them  come,  as  I  lie  alone, — 
The  Centuries,  heavy  as  drifted  sand 
Heaping  above  my  bed  of  stone ! 

"0  be  accursed,  ye  impious  race! — 

Caging  the  creature  that  seeks  to  soar; 
Preserving  agony's  weird  grimace, 
In  hideous  vanity,  evermore !" 


As  a  Poet  139 


Aux  bruits  lointains  ouvrant  1'oreille, 

Jalouse  encor  du  ciel  d'azur, 
La  momie  en  tremblant  s'eveille 

Au  fond  de  1'hypogee  obscur. 

Oh,  dit-elle,  de  sa  voix  lente, 

Etre  mort,  et  durer  toujours. 
Heureuse  la  chaire  pantelante 

Sous  1'ongle  courbe  des  vautours. 

Pour  plonger  dans  ma  nuit  profonde 
Chaque  element  frappe  en  ce  lieu. 

— Nous  sommes  L'air!  nous  sommes  1'onde! 
Nous  sommes  la  terre  et  le  feu! 

Viens  avee  nous,  le  steppe  aride 
Veut  son  panache  d'arbres  verts, 

Viens  sous  1'azur  du  ciel  splendide, 
T'eparpiller  dans  1'univers. 

Nous  t 'emporterons  par  les  plaines 

Nous  te  bercerons  a  la  fois 
Dans  le  murmur e  des  fontaines 

Et  la  bruissement  des  bois. 

Viens.     La  nature  universelle 
Cherche  peut-etre  en  ce  tombeau 

Pour  de  soleil  une  etincelle! 
Pour  la  mer  une  goutte  d'eau! 


Et  dans  ma  tombe  imperissable 
Je  sens  venir  avec  affroi 

Les  siecles  lourds  comme  du  sable 
Qui  s'amoncolle  autour  de  moi. 


140  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Ah!  sois  maudite,  race  impie, 

Qui  de  Petre  arretant  1'essor 
Gardes  ta  laideur  assoupie 

Dans  la  vanite  de  la  mort. 

In  one  of  Hearn's  letters  to  the  Cincinnati  Com- 
mercial, written  soon  after  his  arrival  in  New 
Orleans,  he  writes: — 

Here  is  a  specimen  closely  akin  to  the  Creole  of  the 
Antilles.  It  is  said  to  be  an  old  negro  love-song,  and  I 
think  there  is  a  peculiar  weird  beauty  in  several  of  its 
stanzas.  I  feel  much  inclined  to  doubt  whether  it  was 
composed  by  a  negro,  but  the  question  of  its  authorship 
cannot  affect  its  value  as  a  curiosity,  and,  in  any  case,  its 
spirit  is  thoroughly  African.  Unfortunately,  without  ac- 
cented letters  it  is  impossible  to  convey  any  idea  of  the 
melody,  the  liquid  softness,  the  languor,  of  some  of  the 
couplets.  My  translation  is  a  little  free  in  parts. 

I. 
Dipi  me  vouer  toue,  Adele, 

Ape  danse  calinda, 
Mo  reste  pour  toue  fidele, 

Liberte  a  moin  caba. 
Mo  pas  soussi  d'autt  negresses, 

Mo  pas  gagnin  coeur  pour  yo; 
Yo  gagnin  beaucoup  finesses; 

Yo  semble  serpent  Congo. 

II. 

Mo  aime  toue  trop,  ma  belle, 

Mo  pas  capab  resiste; 
Coeur  a  moin  tout  comme  sauterelle, 

Li  fait  ne  qu'appe  saute. 


As  a  Poet  141 


Mo  jamin  centre  gnoun  femme 

Qui  gagnin  belle  taille  comme  toue; 

Jie  a  toue  jete  la  flamme; 
Corps  a  toue  enchene  moue. 

HI. 

To  tant  comme  serpent  sonnette 

Qui  connin  charme  zozo, 
Qui  gagnin  bouche  a  li  prette 

Pour  servi  comme  gnoun  tombo. 
Mo  jamin  voue  gnoun  negresse 

Qui  connin  marche  comme  toue, 
Qui  gagnin  gnoun  si  belle  gesse; 

Corps  a  toue  ce  gnoun  poupe. 

IV. 

Quand  mo  pas  vouer  toue,  Adele, 

Mo  sentt  m'ane  mourri, 
Mo  vini  com*  gnoun  chandelle 

Qui  ape  alle  fini: 
Mo  pas  vouer  rien  sur  la  terre 

Qui  capab  moin  fait  plaisi; 
Mo  capab  dans  la  riviere 

Jete  moin  pour  pas  souffri. 

V. 

Dis  moin  si  to  gagnin  n'homme; 

Mo  va  fals  ouanga  pour  li; 
Mo  f ais  li  tourne  fantome, 

Si  to  vie  moin  pour  mari. 
Mo  pas  le  in  jour  toue  boudeuse; 

L'autt  femme,  pour  moin  ce  fatras; 
Mo  va  rende  toue  bien  heureuse; 

Mo  va  bailF  toue  bell'  madras. 


142  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

TRANSLATION 

I. 

Since  first  I  beheld  you,  Adele, 

While  dancing  the  calinda, 

I  have  remained  faithful  to  the  thought  of  you 

My  freedom  has  departed  from  me. 

I  care  no  longer  for  all  other  negresses; 

I  have  no  heart  left  for  them: 

You  have  such  grace  and  cunning: 

You  are  like  the  Congo  serpent. 


II. 

I  love  you  too  much,  my  beautiful  one: 

I  am  not  able  to  help  it. 

My  heart  has  become  just  like  a  grasshopper, 

It  does  nothing  but  leap. 

I  have  never  met  any  woman 

Who  has  so  beautiful  a  form  as  yours. 

Your  eyes  flash  flame; 

Your  body  has  enchained  me  captive. 


III. 

Ah,  you  are  so  like  the  serpent-of-the-rattles 

Who  knows  how  to  charm  the  little  bird, 

And  who  has  a  mouth  ever  ready  for  it 

To  serve  it  for  a  tomb ! 

I  have  never  known  any  negress 

Who  could  walk  with  such  grace  as  you  can, 

Or  who  could  make  such  beautiful  gestures: 

Your  body  is  a  beautiful  doll. 


As  a  Poet  143 


IV. 

When  I  cannot  see  you,  Adele, 

I  feel  myself  ready  to  die ; 

My  life  becomes  like  a  candle 

Which  has  almost  burned  itself  out. 

I  cannot,  then,  find  anything  *in  the  world, 

Which  is  able  to  give  me  pleasure; — 

I  could  well  go  down  to  the  river 

And  throw  myself  in  it  that  I  might  cease  to  suffer. 

V. 

Tell  me  if  you  have  a  man; 

And  I  will  make  an  ouanga  charm  for  him: 

I  will  make  him  turn  into  a  phantom, 

If  you  will  only  take  me  for  your  husband. 

I  will  not  go  to  see  you  when  you  are  cross; 

Other  women  are  mere  trash  to  me ; 

I  will  make  you  very  happy, 

And  I  will  give  you  a  beautiful  Madras  handkerchief. 

I  think  there  is  some  true  poetry  in  these  allusions  to 
the  snake.  Is  not  the  serpent  a  symbol  of  grace?  Is  not 
the  so-called  "line  of  beauty"  serpentine?  And  is  there 
not  something  of  the  serpent  in  the  beauty  of  all  graceful 
women? — something  of  undulating  shapeliness,  something 
of  silent  fascination? — something  of  Lilith  and  Lamia? 
The  French  have  a  beautiful  verb  expressive  of  this  idea, 
serpenter,  "to  serpent" — to  curve  in  changing  undula- 
tions like  a  lithe  snake.  The  French  artist  speaks  of  the 
outlines  of  a  beautiful  human  body  as  "  serpenting, "  curv- 
ing and  winding  like  a  serpent.  Do  you  not  like  the 
word?  I  think  it  is  so  expressive  of  flowing  lines  of 


144  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


elegance — so  full  of  that  mystery  of  grace  which  puzzled 
Solomon;  "the  way  of  a  serpent  upon  a  rock." 

The  allusion  to  Voudooism  in  the  last  stanza  especially 
interested  me,  and  I  questioned  the  gentleman  who  fur- 
nished me  with  the  song  as  to  the  significance  of  the 
words:  "I  will  make  him  turn  into  a  phantom. "  I  had 
fancied  that  the  term  fantome  might  be  interpreted  by 
" ghost,"  and  that  the  whole  line  simply  constituted  a 
threat  to  make  some  one  "give  up  the  ghost." 

"It  is  not  exactly  that,"  replied  my  friend;  "it  is  an 
allusion,  I  believe,  to  the  withering  and  wasting  power  of 
Voudoo  poisons.  There  are  such  poisons  actually  in  use 
among  the  negro  obi-men — poisons  which  defy  analysis, 
and,  mysterious  as  the  poisons  of  the  Borgias,  slowly  con- 
sume the  victims  like  a  taper.  He  wastes  away  as  though 
being  dried  up;  he  becomes  almost  mummified;  he  wanes 
like  a  shadow ;  he  turns  into  a  phantom  in  the  same  sense 
that  a  phantom  is  an  unreal  mockery  of  something  real. ' ' 

Thus  I  found  an  intelligent  Louisianan  zealous  to  con- 
firm an  opinion  to  which  I  was  permitted  to  give  expres- 
sion in  the  Commercial  nearly  three  years  ago — that  a 
knowledge  of  secret  septic  poisons  (probably  of  an  animal 
character),  which  leave  no  trace  discoverable  by  the  most 
skilful  chemists,  is  actually  possessed  by  certain  beings 
who  are  reverenced  as  sorcerers  by  the  negroes  of  the 
West  Indies  and  the  Southern  States,  but  more  especially 
of  the  West  Indies,  where  much  of  African  fetichism  has 
been  transplanted. 

OZIAS  MIDWINTER. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  POET   OF  MYOPIA 

THE  dependence  not  only  of  the  literary  character 
and  workmanship  of  a  writer,  but  even  his  innermost 
psyche,  upon  vision,  normal  or  abnormal,  is  a  truth 
which  has  been  dimly  and  falteringly  felt  by  several 
writers.  Concerning  "Madame  Bovary,"  and  his 
friend  Flaubert,  Maxime  du  Camp  reflects  some 
glintings  of  the  truth.  But  these  and  others,  lack- 
ing the  requisite  expert  definiteness  of  knowledge, 
have  failed  to  catch  the  satisfying  and  clear  point  of 
view.  To  illustrate  I  may  quote  the  paragraph  of 
du  Camp: 

"The  literary  procedure  of  Flaubert  threw  every- 
body off  the  track  and  even  some  of  the  experts. 
But  it  was  a  very  simple  matter;  it  was  by  the 
accumulation  and  the  superposition  of  details  that  he 
arrived  at  power.  It  is  the  physiologic  method,  the 
method  of  the  myopes  who  look  at  things  one  after 
the  other,  very  exactly,  and  then  describe  them  suc- 
cessively. The  literature  of  imagination  may  be 
divided  into  two  distinct  schools,  that  of  the  myopes 
and  that  of  the  hyperopes.  The  myopes  see  mi- 
Jiutely,  study  every  line,  finding  each  detail  of  im- 
portance because  everything  appears-  to  them  in 
isolation;  about  them  is  a  sort  of  cloud  in  which  is 

145 


146  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

detached  the  object  in  exaggerated  proportions. 
They  have,  as  it  were,  a  microscope  in  their  eye 
which  enlarges  everything.  The  description  of 
Venice  from  the  Campanile  of  St.  Mark,  that  of 
Destitution  in  'Captain  Fracasse/  by  Gautier  are  the 
capital  results  of  myopic  vision.  The  hyperopes,  on 
the  other  hand,  look  at  the  ensemble,,  in  which  the 
details  are  lost,  and  form  a  kind  of  general  harmony. 
The  detail  loses  all  significance,  except  perhaps  they 
seek  to  bring  it  into  relief  as  a  work  of  art.  .  .  . 
Besides,  the  myopes  seek  to  portray  sensations,  while 
the  hyperopes  especially  aim  at  analysis  of  the  senti- 
ments. If  a  hyperopic  writer  suddenly  becomes 
myopic,  his  manner  of  thinking,  and  consequently  of 
writing,  at  once  is  modified.  What  I  call  the  school 
of  the  myopes,  Gautier  names  the  school  of  the 
rabids.  He  said  to  Merimee :  'Your  characters  have 
no  muscles/  and  Merimee  answered,  'Yours  have  no 
draperies/  ? 

But  there  is  one  consequence,  common  both  to 
Flaubert  and  to  Hearn,  a  most  strange  unity  of  re- 
sult flowing  from  a  seemingly  opposed  but  really 
identical  cause  in  the  two  men.  I  have  elsewhere 
set  forth  the  reasons  for  my  belief  that  the  secret 
of  Flaubert's  life,  character,  and  literary  art  con- 
sisted in  an  inability  to  think  and  write  at  the  same 
time.  He  was  one  of  the  most  healthy  and  brilliant 
of  men  when  he  did  not  read  or  write,  but  his  mind 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  147 

refused  to  act  creatively  whenever  he  wrote  or  read. 
From  this  resulted  his  epilepsy.  Fathered  by  the 
fear  of  this  disease,  mothered  by  opium,  and  reared 
by  unhygiene  and  eye-strain,  came  the  miserable  "St. 
Anthony"  of  the  second  remaking.  In  the  fail- 
ure of  this  pitiful  work  there  was  naught  left  except 
bottomless  pessimism,  the  "cadenced  phrase,"  and  all 
the  rest,  called  "Madame  Bovary"  and  "art  for  art's 
sake." 

There  never  was  a  greater  sufferer  from  eye-strain 
than  Flaubert,  whose  eyes  were  strikingly  beautiful, 
and  seemingly  of  extraordinary  perfection  as  optical 
instruments.  From  this  fact  flowed  the  entire  trag- 
edy of  the  man's  life  and  of  his  life-work.  His 
friend  du  Camp  says  that  had  it  not  been  for  his 
disease  he  would  have  been,  not  a  writer  of  great 
talent,  but  a  man  of  genius.  Hearn  had  the  most 
defective  eyesight,  he  was  indeed  nearly  blind;  but 
physically  he  suffered  little  from  this  cause, — and 
yet  his  choice  of  subjects  and  methods  of  literary 
workmanship,  and  every  line  he  wrote,  were  dictated 
and  ruled  by  his  defect  of  vision.  Opium,  with  the 
impossibility  of  writing  and  creating  at  the  same 
time,  dominated  Flaubert's  work  and  working,  and 
the  similar  result  was  begot  by  Hearn's  enormous 
monocular  myopia. 

From  Martinique,  before  I  had  met  him,  Hearn 
wrote  me: 


148  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

I  am  very  near-sighted.,  have  lost  one  eye,  which  dis- 
figures me  considerably;  and  my  near-sightedness  always 
prevented  the  gratification  of  a  natural  penchant  for 
physical  exercise.  I  am  a  good  swimmer,  that  is  all. 

In  reply  to  nearly  all  the  questions  about  my  near-sight- 
edness I  might  answer,  "Yes."  I  had  the  best  advice  in 
London,  and  observe  all  the  rules  you  suggest.  Glasses 
strain  the  eye  too  much — part  of  retina  is  gone.  The 
other  eye  was  destroyed  by  a  blow  at  college;  or,  rather, 
by  inflammation  consequent  upon  the  blow.  I  can  tell  you 
more  about  myself  when  I  see  you,  but  the  result  will  be 
more  curious  than  pleasing.  Myopia  is  not  aggravating. 

In  "Shadowings,"  the  chapter  on  "Mghtmare- 
Touch,"  Hearn  describes  with  his  gift  of  the  living 
word  the  dreams  and  hauntings  he  endured  when  as 
a  boy  he  was  shut  in  his  room  in  the  dark.  It  is  a 
pitiful  history,  and  shows  how  a  child  may  suffer 
atrociously  from  the  combination  of  an  abnormally 
exuberant  fancy  and  eye-strain,  probably  with  added 
ocular  disease.  The  subjective  sensations  and  images 
were  alive  and  Hearn' s  innate  tendency  to  the  horri- 
ble and  hideous  gave  them  the  most  awful  of  night- 
marish realities. 

I  give  herewith  a  copy  of  a  little  photograph  of 
Hearn  at  about  the  age  of  eight,  standing  by  Mrs. 
Brenane.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  right  eyeball  was 
at  this  time  about  as  large  and  protruding  as  in  later 
life.  This  leaves  a  doubt  whether  the  destruction 
of  the  left  was  due  to  the  blow  at  college  at  the  age 


HEARN  AT  ABOUT  THE  AGE  OF  EIGHT 
From    a    photograph 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  149 

of  sixteen.  In  one  of  my  letters  he  uses  the  word 
"scrofulous"  in  alluding  to  himself. 

It  was  not  only  during  the  last  years  of  his  life, 
that,  as  he  says,  "it  was  now  largely  a  question  of 
eyes."  It  was  always  the  most  important  of  all 
questions;  first,  physically  and  financially,  because 
all  hung  upon  his  ability  to  write  many  hours  a  day. 
How  his  little  of  visual  power  was  preserved  under 
the  work  done  is  a  marvel  of  physiology.  So  un- 
conscious was  Hearn  of  the  influence  of  eye-strain 
in  ruining  the  health  of  others  (he  himself  had  no 
eye-strain  in  the  ordinary  meaning  of  the  term)  that 
he  wonders  why  the  hard  students  about  him  were 
inexplainably  dying,  going  mad,  getting  sick,  and 
giving  up  their  studies.  This  is  hardly  to  be  con- 
sidered a  fault  of  Hearn  when  educators  and  phy- 
sicians and  oculists  the  world  over,  never  suspect  the 
reason. 

Moved  by  sympathy,  and  perhaps  by  the  vaguest 
feeling  that  to  Hearn's  poor  vision  were  due,  in  part 
at  least,  both  his  personal  and  literary  characteristics, 
I  early  besought  him  to  make  use  of  scientific  optical 
helps  in  order  to  see  the  world  better,  and  to  carry 
on  his  writing  with  greater  ease,  and  with  less  dan- 
ger to  the  little  vision  left  him.  He  had  but  one 
eye,  which  was  evidently  enormously  near-sighted. 
The  other  had  been  lost  in  youth.  I  found  that  he  had 
about  25  diopters  of  myopia,  to  use  the  jargon  of  the 


150  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

oculist,  and  that  consequently  he  knew  little  about 
the  appearance  of  objects  even  a  few  feet  away.  In 
writing  he  was  compelled  to  place  the  paper  or  pen- 
point  about  three  inches  from  his  eye.  With  the 
proper  lens  it  was  possible  to  give  him  vision  of 
distant  objects  about  one-fourth  as  clear  as  that  of 
normal  eyes.  For  a  minute  my  disappointment  was 
equal  to  my  surprise  when  I  found  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  see  with  even  this  wretched  indistinctness, 
and  that  he  would  not  think  of  using  spectacles  or 
eyeglasses.  Later  I  found  the  reason  for  his  action. 
He  sometimes  carried  a  little  lens  or  monocle  in  his 
pocket,  which  somewhat  bettered  his  vision,  but  in 
the  several  months  he  spent  with  me  I  saw  him  us© 
it  only  once  or  twice,  and  then  merely  for  an  instant. 
I  am  almost  sure  that  the  reason  for  this  preference 
for  a  world  almost  unseen,  or  seen  only  in  colors, 
while  form  and  outline  were  almost  unknown,  was 
never  conscious  with  Hearn,  although  his  mind  was 
alert  in  detecting  such  psychologic  solutions  in 
others.  In  studying  his  writings,  this  reason  finally 
has  become  clear  to  me. 

When  one  chooses  an  artistic  calling,  Fate  usually, 
and  to  the  artist  unconsciously,  dictates  the  kind  of 
art-work  and  the  method  of  carrying  it  to  realiza- 
tion. The  blind  do  not  choose  to  be  painters,  but 
musicians;  the  deaf  do  not  think  of  music,  though 
nothing  prevents  them  from  being  good  painters. 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  151 

The  dumb  would  hardly  become  orators  or  singers, 
but  they  might  easily  be  sculptors,  or  painters,  or 
designers.  It  is  as  evident  that  the  poet  is  largely 
a  visualizer,  if  one  may  so  designate  this  psychic 
function,  and  without  sight  of  the  world  of  reality 
and  beauty,  poetry  will  inevitably  lack  the  charm  of 
the  real  and  the  lovely.  Every  great  writer,  in 
truth,  shows  more  or  less  clearly  that  the  spring  and 
secret  of  his  imagination  lie  preponderantly  in  the 
exceptional  endowment,  training,  or  sensitiveness  ~  of 
one  of  the  principal  senses  of  sight,  hearing,  or 
touch.  A  thousand  quotations  might  be  made  from 
each  of  a  dozen  great  writers  to  prove  the  thesis. 
The  man  born  blind,  however,  cannot  become  a  poet, 
because  true  poetry  must  be  conditioned  upon  things 
seen — "simple,  sensuous,  and  passionate"  demands 
the  great  critic;  but  interwoven  and  underrunning 
the  simplicity,  the  passion,  and  the  sense,  is  and  must 
be  the  world  as  mirrored  by  the  eye.  All  thinking, 
all  intellectual  activity,  is  by  means  of  the  image 
and  the  picture;  all  words  are  the  product  of  the 
imaging,  and  the  very  letters  of  the  alphabet  are 
conventionalized  pictures. 

Physiologically,  or  normally,  the  perfection  of  the 
artist  and  of  his  workmanship  thus  depends  upon  the 
all-round  perfection  of  his  senses,  the  fulness  of  the 
materials  and  of  his  experience  which  these  work  on 
and  in,  and  the  logical  and  esthetic  rightness  of 


152  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


systematization.  Conversely,  a  new  pathology  of 
genius  is  coming  into  view  which  shows  the  mor- 
bidizing  of  art  and  literature  through  disease,  chiefly 
of  the  sense-organs  of  the  artist  and  literary  work- 
man, but  also  by  unnatural  living,  selfishness,  sin, 
and  the  rest.  As  Hearn  was  probably  the  most 
myopic  literary  man  that  has  existed,  his  own 
thoughts  upon  The  Artistic  Value  of  Myopia  are  of 
peculiar  interest.  In  1887  one  of  his  editorials  in 
the  Times-Democrat  runs  as  follows: — 

Probably  more  than  one  reader,  on  coming  to  page  15 
of  Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton's  delightful  book,  "  Land- 
scape, '  '  was  startled  by  the  author 's  irrefutable  statement 
that  "the  possession  of  very  good  eyesight  may  be  a  hin- 
drance to  those  feelings  of  sublimity  that  exalt  the  poetic 
imagination. "  The  fact  is,  that  the  impressiveness  of 
natural  scenery  depends  a  great  deal  upon  the  apparent 
predominance  of  mass  over  detail,  to  borrow  Mr.  Hamer- 
ton's  own  words;  the  more  visible  the  details  of  a  large 
object, — a  mountain,  a  tower,  a  forest  wall, — the  less 
grand  and  impressive  that  object.  The  more  apparently 
uniform  the  mass,  the  larger  it  seems  to  loom;  the  vaguer 
a  shadow-space,  the  deeper  it  appears.  An  impression  of 
weirdness, — such  as  that  obtainable  in  a  Louisiana  or 
Florida  swamp-forest,  or,  much  more,  in  those  primeval 
and  impenetrable  forest-deeps  described  so  powerfully  by 
Humbolt, — is  stronger  in  proportion  to  the  spectator's 
indifference  to  lesser  detail.  The  real  effect  of  the  scene 
must  be  a  general  one  to  be  understood.  In  painting,  the 
artist  does  not  attempt  microscopic  minutiae  in  treating 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  153 

forest-forms;  he  simply  attempts  to  render  the  effect  of 
the  masses,  with  their  characteristic  generalities  of 
shadow  and  color.  It  is  for  this  reason  the  photograph 
can  never  supplant  the  painting — not  even  when  the  art 
of  photographing  natural  colors  shall  have  been  discov- 
ered. Mr.  Hamerton  cites  the  example  of  a  mountain, 
which  always  seems  more  imposing  when  wreathed  in 
mists  or  half  veiled  by  clouds,  than  when  cutting  sharply 
against  the  horizon  with  a  strong  light  upon  it.  Half  the 
secret  of  Dore's  power  as  an  illustrator  was  his  exagger- 
ated perception  of  this  fact, — his  comprehension  of  the 
artistic  witchcraft  of  suggestion.  And  since  the  percep- 
tion of  details  depends  vastly  upon  the  quality  of  eye- 
sight, a  landscape  necessarily  suggests  less  to  the  keen- 
sighted  man  than  to  the  myope.  The  keener  the  view,  the 
less  depth  in  the  impression  produced.  There  is  no  possi- 
bility of  mysterious  attraction  in  wooded  deeps  or  moun- 
tain recesses,  for  the  eye,  that  like  the  eye  of  the  hawk, 
pierces  shadow  and  can  note  the  separate  quiver  of  each 
leaf.  Far-seeing  persons  can,  to  a  certain  degree,  com- 
prehend this  by  recalling  the  impressions  given  in  twilight 
by  certain  unfamiliar,  or  even  by  familiar  objects, — such 
as  furniture  and  clothing  in  a  half-lighted  room.  The 
suggestiveness  of  form  vanishes  immediately  upon  the 
making  of  a  strong  light.  Again,  attractive  objects 
viewed  vaguely  through  a  morning  or  evening  haze,  or  at 
a  great  distance,  often  totally  lose  artistic  character  when 
a  telescope  is  directed  upon  them. 

In  the  February  number  of  Harper's  Magazine  we  find 
a  very  clever  and  amusing  poem  by  the  scholarly  Andrew 
Lang  upon  this  very  theme.  The  writer,  after  describing 
the  christening-gifts  of  various  kindly  fairies,  tells  us 
that  the  wicked  one — 


154  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


— Said:    "I  shall  be  avenged  on  you. 
My  child,  you  shall  grow  up  nearsighted!" 

With  magic  juices  did  she  lave 
Mine  eyes,  and  wrought  her  wicked  pleasure. 

Well,  of  all  the  gifts  the  Fairies  gave, 
Her's  is  the  present  that  I  treasure ! 

The  bore,  whom  others  fear  and  flee, 

I  do  not  fear,  I  do  not  flee  him; 
I  pass  him  calm  as  calm  can  be ; 

I  do  not  cut — I  do  not  see  him! 
And  with  my  feeble  eyes  and  dim, 

Where  you  see  patchy  fields  and  fences, 
For  me  the  mists  of  Turner  swim — 

My  u azure  distance "  soon  commences! 
Nay,  as  I  blink  about  the  streets 

Of  this  befogged  and  miry  city, 
Why,  almost  every  girl  one  meets 

Seems  preternaturally  pretty! 
'  Try  spectacles, ' '  one 's  friends  intone ; 

"You'll  see  the  world  correctly  through  them." 
But  I  have  visions  of  my  own 

And  not  for  worlds  would  I  undo  them! 


This  is  quite  witty  and  quite  consoling  to  myopes,  even 
as  a  cynical  development  of  Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton's 
artistic  philosophy.  Still,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
myope  necessarily  possesses  the  poetic  faculty  or  feeling; 
— neither  does  it  imply  that  the  presbyope  necessarily 
lacks  it.  If  among  French  writers,  for  example,  Gautier 
was  notably  nearsighted,  Victor  Hugo  had  an  eye  as  keen 
as  a  bird's.  It  is  true  that  a  knowledge  of  the  effect  of 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  155 


shortsightedness  on  the  imagination  may  be  of  benefit  to 
a  nearsighted  man,  who,  possessing  artistic  qualities,  can 
learn  to  take  all  possible  advantage  of  his  myopia, — to 
utilize  his  physical  disability  to  a  good  purpose;  but  the 
longsighted  artist  need  not  be  at  a  loss  to  find  equally 
powerful  sources  of  inspiration — he  can  seek  them  in 
morning  mists,  evening  fogs,  or  those  wonderful  hazes  of 
summer  afternoons,  when  the  land  sends  up  all  its  vapors 
to  the  sun,  like  a  smoke  of  gold.  Beaudelaire,  in  his 
Curiosites  Esthetiques,  made  an  attempt  to  prove  that  the 
greatest  schools  of  painting  were  evolved  among  hazy  sur- 
roundings— Dutch  fogs,  Venetian  mists,  and  the  vapors  of 
Italian  marsh-lands. 

The  evolutionary  tendency  would  seem  to  indicate  for 
future  man  a  keener  vision  than  he  at  present  possesses; 
and  a  finer  perception  of  color — for  while  there  may  be 
certain  small  emotional  advantages  connected  with  myopia, 
it  is  a  serious  hindrance  in  practical  life.  What  effect 
keener  sight  will  have  on  the  artistic  powers  of  the  future 
man,  can  only  be  imagined, — but  an  increasing  tendency 
to  realism  in  art  is  certainly  perceptible;  and  perhaps  an 
interesting  chapter  could  be  written  upon  the  possible 
results  to  art  of  perfected  optical  instruments.  The  sub- 
ject also  suggests  another  idea, — that  the  total  inability 
of  a  certain  class  of  highly  educated  persons  to  feel  inter- 
est in  a  certain  kind  of  art-production  may  be  partly  ac- 
counted for  by  the  possession  of  such  keen  visual  percep- 
tion as  necessarily  suppresses  the  sensation  of  breadth  of 
effect,  either  in  landscape  or  verbal  description. 

Thus,  according  to  Flaubert,  the  myope  looks  at 
things  one  after  another  and  describes  details,  while 
Hearn  says  the  exact  opposite.  Both  are  wrong. 


156  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

The  oculist  will  feel  constrained  to  differ  somewhat 
with  Hearn  in  the  foregoing  article. 

In  May,  1887,  he  reviews  editorially  an  article  of 
my  own  which  I  had  sent  him  during  the  preceding 
year.  Again,  because  there  has  never  been  a  lit- 
erary artist  with  a  color-sense  so  amazingly  devel- 
oped as  that  of  Hearn,  I  venture  to  copy  his  com- 
mendation of  my  views : — 

COLORS  AND  EMOTIONS 
(May  8,  1887.) 

The  evolutionary  history  of  the  Color-Sense,  very  pret- 
tily treated  of  by  Grant  Allen  and  others,  both  in  regard 
to  the  relation  between  fertilization  of  flowers  by  in- 
sects, and  in  regard  to  the  aesthetic  pleasure  of  man  in 
contemplating  certain  colors,  has  also  been  considered  in 
a  very  thorough  way  by  American  thinkers.  Perhaps  the 
most  entertaining  and  instructive  paper  yet  published  on 
the  subject  was  one  in  the  American  Journal  of  Ophthal- 
mology last  September.  It  has  just  been  reprinted  in 
pamphlet  form,  under  the  title  of  "The  Human  Color- 
Sense  as  the  Organic  Response  to  Natural  Stimuli;"  and 
contains  a  remarkable  amplification  of  these  theories, 
rather  suggested  than  laid  down  by  the  author  of  "Phys- 
iological JEsthetics."  Of  course,  the  reader  whom  the 
subject  can  interest,  comprehends  that  outside  of  the 
mind  no  such  thing  as  color  exists;  and  that  the  phe- 
nomena of  colors,  like  those  of  sound,  are  simply  the 
results  of  exterior  impressions  upon  nerve  apparatus  spe- 
cially sensitive  to  vibrations — in  the  one  case  of  ether, 
in  the  other  of  air.  Everybody,  moreover, — even  those 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  157 


totally  ignorant  of  the  physiology  of  the  eye,  know  that 
certain  colors  are  called  primary  or  elementary.  But  it 
has  probably  occurred  to  few  to  ask  why, — except  in 
regard  to  mixing  of  paints  in  a  drawing-school. 

The  theories  of  Gladstone  and  Magnus  that  the  men  of 
the  Homeric  era  were  color-blind,  because  of  the  absence 
from  the  Homeric  poems  of  certain  words  expressive  of 
certain  colors,  have  been  disproved  by  more  thorough 
modern  research.  The  primitive  man's  sense  of  color,  or 
the  sensitiveness  of  his  retina  to  ether  vibrations,  may  not 
have  been  as  fine  as  that  of  the  Roman  mosaic-worker 
who  could  select  his  materials  of  30,000  different  tints, 
nor  as  that  of  the  Gobelin  weavers,  who  can  recognize 
28,000  different  shades  of  wool.  But  the  evidence  goes  to 
show  that  the  sense  of  color  is  old  as  the  gnawing  of 
hunger  or  the  pangs  of  fear, — old  as  the  experience  that 
taught  living  creatures  to  discern  food  and  to  flee  from 
danger.  There  is,  however,  reason  to  suppose,  from  cer- 
tain developmental  phenomena  observed  in  the  eyes  of 
children  and  newly  born  animals,  that  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  color  sense  has  been  gradually  reached — not 
so  much  in  any  particular  species,  as  in  all  species  pos- 
sessing it, — just  as  vision  itself  must  have  been  gradually 
acquired.  Also  showy  colors  must  have  been  perceived 
before  tints  could  be  discerned;  and  even  now  we  know 
through  the  spectroscope,  that  the  human  eye  is  not  yet 
developed  to  the  fullest  possible  perceptions  of  color. 
Now  the  first  colors  recognized  by  the  first  eyes  must  have 
presumably  been  just  those  we  call  primary, — Yellow,  Red, 
Green,  Blue.  Yellow,  the  color  of  gold,  is  also  the  color 
of  our  sun;  the  brightest  daylight  has  a  more  or  less  faint 
tinge  even  at  noon,  according  to  the  state  of  the  atmos- 
phere;— and  this  tinge  deepens  at  sunrise  and  sunset. 


158  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


Red  is  the  color  of  blood, — a  color  allied  necessarily  from 
time  immemorial  with  violent  mental  impressions,  whether 
of  war,  or  love,  or  the  chase,  or  religious  sacrifice.  Green 
itself  is  the  color  of  the  world.  Blue, — the  blue  of  the 
far  away  sky, — has  necessarily  always  been  for  man  the 
color  most  mysterious  and  holy, — always  associated  with 
those  high  phenomena  of  heaven  which  first  inspired  won- 
der and  fear  of  the  Unknown.  These  colors  were  prob- 
ably first  known  to  intelligent  life;  and  their  impressions 
are  to-day  the  strongest.  So  violent,  indeed,  have  they 
become  to  our  refined  civilized  sense,  that  in  apparel  or 
decoration  three  of  them,  at  least,  are  condemned  when 
offered  pure.  Even  the  armies  of  the  world  are  abandon- 
ing red  uniforms; — no  refined  people  wear  flaming  crim- 
sons or  scarlets  or  yellows; — nobody  would  paint  a  house 
or  decorate  a  wall  with  a  solid  sheet  of  strong  primary 
color.  Blue  is  still  the  least  violent,  the  most  agreeable 
to  the  artistic  sense ;  and  in  subdued  form  it  holds  a  place, 
in  costume  and  in  art,  refused  to  less  spiritual  colors. 

It  might  consequently  be  expected  there  should  exist 
some  correlation  between  the  primary  colors  and  the 
stronger  emotional  states  of  man.  And  such,  indeed, 
proves  to  be  the  case.  Emotionally  the  colors  come  in 
the  order  of  Red,  Yellow,  Green,  Blue.  Red  still  appeals 
to  the  idea  of  Passion, — for  which  very  reason  its  artistic 
use  is  being  more  and  more  restrained.  Very  curious  are 
the  researches  made  by  Grant  Allen  showing  the  fact  of 
the  sensual  use  of  red.  In  Swinburne's  " Poems  and 
Ballads"  (the  same  suppressed  work  republished  in  this 
country  under  its  first  title,  "Laus  Veneris"),  the  red 
epithets  appear  159  times,  while  gold,  green  and  blue 
words  occur  respectively  143,  86  and  25  times.  In  Tenny- 
son's  beautiful  poem,  "The  Princess,"  the  red  words 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  159 

occur  only  20  times,  the  gold  28,  the  green  5,  the  blue 
once.  With  all  his  exquisite  sense  of  color,  Tennyson  is 
sparing* of  adjectives; — there  is  no  false  skin  to  his  work; 
it  is  solid  muscle  and  bone. 

Next  to  Red,  the  most  emotional  color  is  Yellow, — the 
color  of  life,  and  of  what  men  seem  to  prize  next  to  life, — 
Gold.  We  fancy  we  can  live  without  green  sometimes; 
it  comes  third;  but  it  is  the  hue  associated  with  all  the 
labors  of  man  on  the  earth,  since  he  began  to  labor.  It 
is  the  color  of  Industry.  Blue  has  always  been,  since  man 
commenced  to  think,  and  always  will  be,  until  he  shall 
have  ceased  to  think, — associated  with  his  spiritual  sense, 
— his  idea  of  many  gods  or  of  One, — his  hopes  of  a  second 
life,  his  faith,  his  good  purposes,  his  perception  of  duty. 
Still,  all  who  pray,  turn  up  their  faces  toward  the  eternal 
azure.  And  with  the  modern  expansion  of  the  Idea  of 
God,  as  with  the  modern  expansion  of  the  Idea  of  the 
Universe,  the  violet  gulf  of  space  ever  seems  more  mys- 
tical,— its  pure  color  more  and  more  divine,  and  appeals 
to  us  as  the  color  of  the  Unknowable, — the  color  of  the 
Holy  of  Holies. 

That  Hearn  wrote  not  from  his  own  experience, 
out  of  his  own  heart,  and  with  its  blood,  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  life  had  denied  him  the  needed  experi- 
ence; the  personal  materials,  those  that  would  inter- 
est the  imaginative  or  imagining  reader,  did  not  exist. 
He  must  borrow,  at  first  literally,  which  for  him 
meant  translation  or  retelling.  The  kind  of  things 
chosen  was  also  dictated  by  the  tragedy  and  pathos  of 
his  entire  past  life.  But  as  if  this  pitiful  tangling  of 
the  strands  of  Destiny  were  not  enough,  Fate  added 


160  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

a  knot  of  still  more  controlling  misfortune.  His 
adult  life  was  passed  without  the  poet's  most  neces- 
sary help  of  good  vision.  Indeed  he  had  such  ex- 
tremely poor  vision  that  one  might  say  it  was  only 
the  merest  fraction  of  the  normal.  A  most  hazy 
blur  of  colors  was  all  he  perceived  of  objects  beyond 
a  foot  or  two  away.  There  was  left  for  him  the 
memory  of  a  world  of  forms  as  seen  in  his  child- 
hood; but  that  fact  throws  into  relief  the  fact  that 
it  was  a  memory.  It  needs  little  psychologic  acumen 
to  realize  how  inaccurate  would  be  our  memories  of 
trees,  landscapes,  mountains,  oceans,  cities,  and  the 
rest,  seen  only  thirty  years  ago.  How  unsatisfying, 
how  unreliable,  especially  for  artistic  purposes,  must 
such  memories  be !  To  be  sure,  these  haunting  and 
dim  recollections  were,  or  might  have  been,  helped 
out  a  little  by  pictures  and  photographs  studied  at 
the  distance  of  three  inches  from  the  eye.  The 
pathos  of  this,  however,  is  increased  by  the  fact  that 
Hearn  cared  nothing  for  such  photographs,  etchings, 
engravings,  etc.  I  never  saw  him  look  at  one  with 
attention  or  interest.  Paintings,  water-colors,  etc., 
were  as  useless  to  him  as  the  natural  views  them- 
selves. 

Another  way  that  he  might  have  supplemented 
his  infirmity  was  by  means  of  his  monocle,  but  he 
made  little  use  of  this  poor  device,  because  he  in- 
stinctively recognized  that  it  aided  so  meagrely. 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  161 

One  cannot  be  sure  how  consciously  he  refused  the 
help,  or  knew  the  reasons  for  his  refusal.  At  best 
it  could  give  him  only  a  suggestion  of  the  accurate 
knowledge  which  our  eyes  give  us  of  distant  objects, 
and  not  even  his  sensitive  mind  could  know  that  it 
minimized  the  objects  thus  seen,  and  almost  turned 
them  into  a  caricaturing  microscopic  smallness,  like 
that  produced  when  we  look  through  the  large  end 
of  an  opera-glass.  What  would  we  think  of  the 
world  if  we  carried  before  our  eyes  an  opera-glass 
thus  inverted?  Would  not  a  second's  such  use  be 
as  foolish  as  continuous  use?  There  was  an  optical 
and  sensible  reason  for  his  refusal.  With  the  subtle 
wisdom  of  the  unconscious  he  refused  to  see  plainly, 
because  his  successful  work,  his  unique  function,  lay 
in  the  requickening  of  ancient  sorrows,  and  of  lost, 
aimless  and  errant  souls.  He  supplemented  the 
deficiencies  of  vision  with  a  vivid  imagination,  a  per- 
fect memory,  and  a  perfection  of  touch  which 
gave  some  sense  of  solidity  and  content,  and  by 
hearing,  that  echo-like  emphasized  unreality;  but  his 
world  was  essentially  a  two-dimensional  one.  To 
add  the  comble  to  his  ocular  misfortunes,  he  had  but 
one  eye,  and  therefore  he  had  no  stereoscopic  vision, 
and  hence  almost  no  perception  of  solidity,  thick- 
ness?  or  content  except  such  as  was  gained  by  the 
sense  of  touch,  memory,  judgment,  etc.  The  little 
glimpse  of  stereoscopic  qualities  was  made  impos- 


162  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

sible  by  the  fact  of  his  enormous  myopia,  and  fur- 
ther by  the  comparative  blindness  to  objects  beyond 
a  few  inches  or  a  few  feet  away  from  the  eye.  The 
small  ball  becomes  flat  when  brought  sufficiently 
near  the  eye.  Practically  the  world  beyond  a  few 
feet  was  not  a  three-dimensional  one;  it  was  colored 
it  is  true,  and  bewilderingly  so,  but  it  was  formless 
and  flat,  without  much  thickness  or  solidity,  and  al- 
most without  perspective.1  Moreover,  Heara's  single 
eye  was  divergent,  and  more  of  the  world  to  his  left 
side  was  invisible  to  him  than  to  other  single-eyed 
persons.  Most  noteworthy  also  is  another  fact, — 
the  slowness  of  vision  by  a  highly  myopic  eye.  It 
takes  it  longer  to  see  what  it  finally  does  see  than 
in  the  case  of  other  eyes.  So  all  the  movements  of 
such  a  myopic  person  must  be  slow  and  careful,  for 
he  is  in  doubt  about  everything  under  foot,  or  even 
within  reach  of  the  hands.  Hearn's  myopia  pro- 
duced his  manners. 

Intellect,  one  must  repeat,  is  largely,  almost 
entirely,  the  product  of  vision, — especially  the 
esthetic  part  of  intellect.  And  intellect,  it  should 
not  be  forgotten,  is  "desiccated  emotion;"  which 
brings  us  up  sharply  before  the  question  of  the  effect 
upon  esthetic  and  general  feeling,  upon  the  soft 

*I  have  gathered,  but  must  omit,  a  hundred  illuminating 
quotations  from  Hearn's  writings,  illustrating  the  truth  of  the 
formlessness  and  non-objectivity  of  his  world,  and  how  color 
dominated  his  poorly  seen  universe. 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  163 

swirl  and  lift  and  flitting  rush  of  the  emotional 
nature,  in  a  psyche  so  sensitive  and  aerial  as  that  of 
Hearn.  In  this  rare  ether  one  loses  the  signifi- 
cance of  words,  and  the  limitations  of  logic,  but  it 
may  not  be  doubted  that  in.  the  large,  the  summa- 
rized effect  of  thirty  years  of  two-dimensional  seeing 
and  living,  of  a  flat,  formless,  colored  world,  upon 
the  immeasurably  quick,  sensitive  plate  of  Hearn's 
mind,  was — well,  it  was  what  it  was ! 

And  who  can  describe  that  mind!  Clearly  and 
patently,  it  was  a  mind  without  creative  ability, 
spring,  or  the  desire  for  it.  It  was  a  mind  impro- 
creant  by  inheritance  and  by  education,  by  necessity 
and  by  training,  by  poverty  internal  and  external. 
To  enable  its  master  to  live,  it  must  write,  and,  as 
was  pitifully  evident,  if  it  could  not  write  in,  obedi- 
ence to  a  creative  instinct,  it  must  do  the  next  best 
thing.  This  residual  second  was  to  describe  the 
external  world,  or  at  least  so  much  of  the  externals 
of  all  worlds,  physical,  biological,  or  social,  as  ro- 
mance or  common-sense  demanded  to  make  the  writ- 
ing vivid,  accurate,  and  bodied.  Any  good  litera- 
ture, especially  the  poetic,  must  be  based  on  reality, 
must  at  least  incidentally  have  its  running  obligate 
of  reality.  For  the  poet,  again  emphasized,  vision 
is  the  intermediary,  the  broad,  bright  highway  to 
facts.  Prosaically,  local  color  requires  the  local 
seer.  Barred  from  this  divine  roadway  to  and 


164  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

through  the  actual  universe,  the  foiled  mind  of 
Hearn  could  choose  but  one  course:  to  regarment, 
transform,  and  color  the  world,  devised  and  trans- 
mitted by  others,  and  reversing  the  old  o  Xbfoz 
1-y-eveTo  rewrite  the  history  of  the  soul  as  0ap$  o 
l-fevero,  for  in  Hearn's  alembic  the  solidest  of  flesh 
was  "melted"  and  escaped  in  clouds  of  spirit;  it  was 
indeed  often  so  disembodied  and  freed  that  one  is 
lost  in  wonder  at  the  mere  vision  of  the  cloudland 
so  eerie,  so  silent,  so  void,  so  invisibly  far,  and  fad- 
ing ever  still  farther  away.  But,  chained  to  the 
here  Hearn  could  not  march  on  the  bright  road. 
He  could  never  even  see  the  road,  or  its  ending.  If 
freed  to  go,  there  became  here  with  the  intolerable 
limitation  of  his  vision,  the  peculiarity  of  his  un- 
vision.  The  world,  the  world  of  the  there  must  be 
brought  to  him,  and  in  the  bringing  it  became  the 
here.  In  the  process,  distant  motion  or  action  be- 
came dead,  silent,  and  immobile  being;  distance  was 
transformed  to  presence,  and  an  intimacy  of  pres- 
ence which  at  one  blow  destroyed  scene,  setting,  and 
illumination.  For,  except  to  passionate  love,  near- 
ness and  touch  are  not  poetical  or  transfiguring,  and 
to  Hearn  love  never  could  come;  at  least  it  never 
did  come.  Except  in  boyhood  he  never,  with  any 
accuracy  of  expression  or  life,  saw  a  human  face; 
at  the  best,  he  saw  faces  only  in  the  frozen  photo- 
graphs, and  these  interested  him  little. 


The  Poet  of  Myopia  165 

With  creative  instinct  or  ability  denied,  with  the 
poet's  craving  for  open-eyed  knowing,  and  with  the 
poet's  necessity  of  realizing  the  world  out  there, 
Hearn,  baldly  stated,  was  forced  to  become  the  poet 
of  myopia.  His  groping  mind  was  compelled  to 
rest  satisfied  with  the  world  of  distance  and  reality 
transported  by  the  magic  carpet  to  the  door  of  his 
imagination  and  fancy.  There  in  a  flash  it  was 
melted  to  formless  spirit,  recombined  to  soul,  and 
given  the  semblance  of  a  thin  reincarnation,  fash- 
ioned, refashioned,  colored,  recolored.  There,  lo! 
that  incomparable  wonder  of  art,  the  haunting,  mag- 
ical essence  of  reality,  the  quivering,  elusive  protean 
ghost  of  the  tragedy  of  dead  pain,  the  smile  of  a 
lost  universe  murmuring  non  dolet  while  it  dies 
struck  by  the  hand  of  the  beloved  murderer. 


CHAPTER   X 

HEARN'S   STYLE 

"The  lovers  of  the  antique  loveliness,'  "  wrote 
Hearn,  "are  proving  to  me  the  future  possibilities  of 
a  long  cherished  dream — the  English  realization  of 
a  Latin  style,  modeled  upon  foreign  masters,  and 
rendered  even  more  forcible  by  that  element  of 
strength  which  is  the  characteristic  of  the  northern 
tongues."  "I  think  that  Genius  must  have  greater 
attributes  than  mere  creative  power  to  be  called  to 
the  front  rank, — the  thing  created  must  be  beauti- 
ful; it  does  not  satisfy  if  the  material  be  rich.  I 
cannot  content  myself  with  ores  and  rough  jewels, 
etc."  "It  has  long  been  my  aim  to  create  some- 
thing in  English  fiction  analogous  to  that  warmth  of 
color  and  richness  of  imagery  hitherto  peculiar  to 
Latin  literature.  Being  of  a  meridional  race  my- 
self, a  Greek,  I  feel  rather  with  the  Latin  race  than 
with  the  Anglo-Saxon;  and  trust  that  with  time  and 
study  I  may  be  able  to  create  something  different 
from  the  stone-grey  and  somewhat  chilly  style  of 
latter-day  English  or  American  romance."  "The 
volume,  'Chinese  Ghosts/  is  an  attempt  in  the  direc- 
tion I  hope  to  make  triumph  some  day,  poetical 
prose."  "A  man's  style,  when  fully  developed,  is 

166 


Hearn's  Style  167 


part  of  his  personality.  Mine  is  being  shaped  to  a 
particular  end." 

Hearn  advised  the  use  of  the  etymological  dic- 
tionary in  order  to  secure  "that  subtle  sense  of  words 
to  which  much  that  startles  in  poetry  and  prose  is 
due."  But  although  always 'remaining  an  artist  in 
words,  he,  at  his  best,  came  to  know  that  artistic 
technic  in  ideas  is  a  more  certain  method  of  arousing 
and  holding  the  readers'  interest.  He  also  strongly 
urges  a  knowledge  of  Science  as  more  necessary  to 
the  formation  of  a  strong  style.  In  this,  however, 
he  never  practiced  what  he  commended,  because  he 
had  no  mind  for  Science,  nor  knowledge  of  scientific 
things.  He  spoke  with  pride  of  writing  the  scien- 
tific editorials  for  his  paper,  but  they  were  few  and 
may  quickly  be  ignored. 

Flaubert  was  Hearn's  literary  deity;  the  technic 
of  the  two  men  was  identical,  and  consisted  of 
infinite  pains  with  data,  in  phrase-building,  sentence- 
making,  and  word-choosing.  With  no  writer  was 
the  filing  of  the  line  ever  carried  to  higher  perfec- 
tion than  with  both  master  and  pupil;  fortunately 
the  younger  had  to  make  his  living  by  his  pen,  and 
therefore  he  could  not  wreck  himself  upon  the  im- 
possible task  as  did  Flaubert,  For  nothing  is  more 
certain,  to  ruin  style  and  content,  form  as  well  as 
matter,  than  to  make  style  and  form  the  first  con- 
sideration of  a  writer.  Flaubert,  the  fashion-maker 


168  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

and  supreme  example  of  this  school,  came  at  last  to 
recognize  this  truth,  and  wished  that  he  might  buy 
up  and  destroy  all  the  copies  of  "Madame  Bovary;" 
and  he  summed  up  the  unattainableness  of  the  ideal, 
as  well  as  the  resultant  abysmal  pessimism,  when  he 
said  that  "form  is  only  an  error  of  sense,  and  sub- 
stance a  fancy  of  your  thought."  His  ever-repeated 
"Art  has  no  morality/'  "The  moment  a  thing  is  true 
it  is  good,"  "Style  is  an  absolute  method  of  seeing 
things,"  "The  idea  exists  only  by  virtue  of  its  form," 
etc.,  led  Flaubert  and  his  thousand  imitators  into  the 
quagmire  which  Zola,  Wilde,  Shaw,  and  decadent 
journalism  generally  so  admirably  illustrate.  That 
Hearn  escaped  from  the  bog  is  due  to  several  inter- 
esting reasons,  the  chief  being  his  poverty,  which 
compelled  him  to  write  much,  and  his  audience, 
which,  being  Anglo-Saxon  (and  therefore  properly 
and  thoroughly  cursed),  would  not  buy  the  elegant 
pornography  of  Flaubert  and  the  gentlemen  who 
succeeded,  or  did  not  succeed,  in  the  perfection  of 
the  worship  and  of  the  works  of  the  master  of  them 
all.  And  then  Hearn  was  himself  at  least  part 
Anglo-Saxon,  so  that  he  shrank  from  perfection  in 
the  method. 

There  is  a  pathetic  proof  of  the  lesson  doubly 
repeated  in  the  lives  of  both  Flaubert  and  Hearn. 
"St.  Anthony"  was  rewritten  three  times,  and  each 
time  the  failures  might  be  called,  great,  greater, 


Hearn's  Style  169 


greatest.  There  lies  before  me  Hearn's  manuscript 
translation  of  the  third  revision  of  the  work,  in  two 
large  volumes,  with  a  printed  pamphlet  of  directions 
to  the  printer,  an  Introduction,  etc., — a  great  labor 
assuredly  on  Hearn's  part.  No  publisher  could  be 
found  to  give  it  to  the  world  of  English  readers!1 
Moreover,  there  was  never  in  his  life  any  personal 
happiness,  romance,  poetry,  or  satisfaction  which 
could  serve  as  the  material  of  Hearn's  esthetic 
faculty.  Almost  every  hour  of  that  life  had  been 
lived  in  physical  or  mental  anguish,  denied  desire, 
crushed  yearnings,  and  unguided  waywardness.  Born 
of  a  Greek  mother,  and  a  roving  English  father,  his 
childhood  was  passed  in  an  absurd  French  school 
where  another  might  have  become  a  dwarfed  and 
potted  Chinese  tree.  Flung  upon  the  alien  world  of 
the  United  States  in  youth,  without  self-knowledge, 
experience,  or  self-guiding  power,  he  drank  for  years 
all  the  bitter  poisons  of  poverty,  banality,  and  the 
rest,  which  may  not  shatter  the  moral  and  mental 
health  of  strong  and  coarse  natures.  By  nature  and 
necessity  shy  beyond  belief,  none  may  imagine  the 
poignant  sufferings  he  endured,  and  how  from  it  all 
he  writhed  at  last  to  manhood  and  self-consciousness, 
preserved  a  weird  yet  real  beauty  of  soul,  a  morbid 

Particulars  concerning  the  manuscript  translation  of  "St. 
Anthony"  are  given  in  the  Bibliography  of  Miss  Stedman, 
Hearn's  "Argument"  of  the  book  being  reprinted  in  full. 


170  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

yet  genuine  artist-power,  a  childlike  and  childish,  yet 
most  involuted  and  mysterious  heart,  a  supple  and 
subtle,  yet  illogical  and  contentless  intellect. 

The  most  striking  evidence  of  the  pathetic  and 
unmatched  endowment  and  experience  is  that,  while 
circumstance  dictated  that  he  should  be  a  romancer, 
no  facts  in  his  own  life  could  be  used  as  his  material. 
There  had  been  no  romance,  no  love,  no  happiness, 
no  interesting  personal  data,  upon  which  he  could 
draw  to  give  his  imagination  play,  vividness,  actual- 
ity, or  even  the  semblance  of  reality.  So  sombre 
and  tragic,  moreover,  had  been  his  own  living  that 
the  choice  of  his  themes  could  only  be  of  unhealthy, 
almost  unnatural,  import  and  coloring.  He  there- 
fore chose  to  work  over  the  imaginings  of  other 
writers,  and  perforce  of  morbid  ones. 

A  glance  at  his  library  confirms  the  opinion.. 
When  Hearn  left  for  Japan,  he  turned  over  to  me 
several  hundred  volumes  which  he  had  collected  and 
did  not  wish  to  take  with  him.  His  most  prized 
books  he  had  had  especially  rebound  in  dainty 
morocco  covers,  and  these,  particularly,  point  to  the 
already  established  taste,  the  yearning  for  the 
strange,  the  weird,  and  the  ghostlike,  the  gathered 
and  pressed  exotic  flowers  of  folk-lore,  the  banalities 
and  morbidities  of  writers  with  unleashed  imagina- 
tions, the  love  of  antique  religions  and  peoples,  the 
mysteries  of  mystics,  the  descriptions  of  savage  life 


Hearn's  Style  171 


and  rites — all  mixed  with  dictionaries,  handbooks, 
systems  of  philosophy,  etc. 

Under  the  conditioning  factor  of  his  taste,  it  is 
true  that  his  choice,  or  his  flair,  was  unique  and 
inerrant.  He  tracked  his  game  with  fatal  accuracy 
to  its  lair.  His  literary  sense  was  perfect,  when  he 
set  it  in  action,  and  this  is  his  unique  merit.  There 
has  never  been  a  mind  more  infallibly  sure  to  find 
the  best  in  all  literatures,  the  best  of  the  kind  he 
sought,  and  probably  his  translations  of  the  stories 
from  the  French  are  as  perfect  as  can  be. 

His  second  published  volume,  the  "Stray  Leaves 
from  Strange  Literature,"  epitomizes  and  reillu- 
mines  this  first  period  of  his  literary  workmanship. 
The  material,  the  basis,  is  not  his  own;  it  is  drawn 
from  the  fatal  Orient,  and  tells  of  love,  jealousy, 
hate,  bitter  and  burning  vengeance,  and  death,  sud- 
den and  awful.  Over  it  is  the  wondrous  mystical 
glamour  in  which  he,  like  his  elder  brother  Cole- 
ridge, was  so  expert  in  sunsetting  these  dead  days 
and  deathless  themes.  His  next  book,  "Some  Chi- 
nese Ghosts,"  was  a  reillustration  of  the  same  search- 
ing, finding,  and  illuminating. 

Flaubert's  choice  of  subjects,  as  regards  his  essen- 
tial character,  was  of  the  most  extreme  illogicality; 
his  cadenced  phrase  and  meticulous  technic  were 
also  not  the  product  of  his  character  or  of  his  free- 
dom. In  the  Land  of  Nowhere,  Hearn  was  like- 


172  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

wise  compelled  to  reside,  and  it  was  necessarily  a 
land  of  color  and  echo,  not  one  of  form.  The  suf- 
fering Frenchman  emptied  of  inhabitants  or  deim- 
persoiialized  his  alien  country,  while  the  more 
healthy  Anglo-Saxon  peopled  it  with  ghosts.  "Have 
you  ever  experienced  the  historic  shudder  ?"  asked 
Flaubert.  "I  seek  to  give  your  ghost  a  ghostly 
shudder,"  said  Hearn.  Flaubert  wrote: 

"The  artist  should  be  in  his  work,  like  God  in 
creation,  invisible  and  all-powerful;  he  should  be 
felt  everywhere  and  seen  nowhere. 

"Art  should  be  raised  above  personal  affections 
and  nervous  susceptibilities.  It  is  time  to  give  it 
the  perfection  of  the  physical  sciences  by  means  of 
pitiless  method." 

And  Hearn's  first  and  most  beloved  "Avatar,"  and 
his  most  serious  "St.  Anthony" — works  dealing  with 
the  mysteries  and  awesomeness  of  disembodied  souls 
and  ideals — "could  not  get  themselves  printed." 
Moreover  in  all  that  he  afterwards  published  there 
are  the  haunting  far-away,  the  soft  concealing  smile, 
and  the  unearthly  memories  of  pain,  the  detached 
spirits  of  muted  and  transmuted  dead  emotions,  and 
denied  yearnings,  the  formless  colorings  of  half-in- 
visible and  evanishing  dreams. 

For  with  Hearn' s  lack  of  creative  ability,  married 
to  his  inexperience  of  happiness,  he  could  but  choose 
the  darksome,  the  tragical  elements  of  life,  the 


Hearn's  Style  173 


even  of  religion,  as  his  themes.  His  intellect 
being  a  reflecting,  or  at  least  a  recombining  and  col- 
oring faculty,  his  datum  must  be  sought  without,  and 
it  must  be  brought  to  him;  his  joyless  and  even  his 
tragic  experience  compelled  him  to  cull  from  the 
mingled  sad  and  bright  only 'the  pathetic  or  pessi- 
mistic subjects;  his  physical  and  optical  imprison- 
ment forbade  that  objectivation  and  distinctive  em- 
bodiment which  stamp  an  art  work  with  the  seal  of 
reality,  and  make  it  stand  there  wholly  non-excusing, 
or  else  offering  itself  as  its  own  excuse  for  being. 
True  art  must  have  the  warp  of  materiality,  inter- 
woven with  the  woof  of  life,  or  else  the  coloration 
and  designs  of  the  imagination  cannot  avail  to  dower 
it  with  immortality. 

Working  within  the  sad  limits  his  Fates  had  set, 
Hearn  performed  wonders.  None  has  made  tragedy 
so  soft  and  gentle,  none  has  rendered  suffering  more 
beautiful,  none  has  dissolved  disappointment  into 
such  painless  grief,  none  has  blunted  the  hurt  of 
mortality  with  such  a  delightful  anesthesia,  and  by 
none  have  death  and  hopelessness  been  more  deftly 
figured  in  the  guise  of  a  desirable  Mrvana.  The 
doing  of  this  was  almost  a  unique  doing,  the  man- 
ner of  the  Koiycrlt;  was  assuredly  so,  and  constitutes 
Hearn's  claim  to  an  artist's  "Forever.77  He  would 
have  made  no  claim,  it  is  true,  to  this,  or  to  any 
other  endless  existence,  but  we  who  read  would  be 


174  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

too  undiscriminating,  would  be  losers,  ing-rates,  if  we 
did  not  cherish  the  lovely  gift  he  brings  to  us  so 
shyly.  Restricted  and  confined  as  was  his  garden, 
he  grew  in  it  exotic  flowers  of  unearthly  but  imper- 
ishable beauty.  One  will  not  find  elsewhere  an 
equal  craftsmanship  in  bringing  into  words  and 
vision  the  intangible,  the  far,  fine,  elusive  fancy,  the 
ghosts  of  vanished  hearts  and  hopes.  Under  his 
magic  touch  unseen  spirit  almost  reappears  with  the 
veiling  of  materiality,  and  behind  the  grim  and  grin- 
ning death's-head  a  supplanting  smile  of  kindn.ess 
invites  pity,  if  not  a  friendly  whisper. 

As  to  literary  aim,  Hearn  distinctly  and  repeat- 
edly confessed  to  me  that  his  ideal  was,  in  his  own 
words,  to  give  his  reader  aa  ghostly  shudder,"  a 
sense  of  the  closeness  of  the  unseen  about  us,  as  if 
eyes  we  saw  not  were  watching  us,  as  if  long-dead 
spirits  and  weird  powers  were  haunting  the  very  air 
about  our  ears,  were  sitting  hid  in  our  heart  of 
hearts.  It  was  a  pleasing  task  to  him  to  make  us 
hear  the  moans  and  croonings  of  disincarnate  griefs 
and  old  pulseless  pains,  begging  piteously,  but  al- 
ways softly,  gently,  for  our  love  and  comforting. 
But  it  should  not  be  unrecognized  that  no  allure- 
ment of  his  art  can  hide  from  view  the  deeper  pathos 
of  a  horrid  and  iron  fatalism  which  to  his  mind 
moved  the  worlds  of  nature  or  of  life,  throttled  free- 
dom, steeled  the  heart,  iced  the  emotions,  and  die- 


Hearn's  Style  175 


tated  the  essential  automatism  of  our  own  being 
and  of  these  sad  dead  millions  which  crowd  the  dimly 
seen  dreams  of  Hearn's  mind. 

It  may  be  added  that,  accepting  the  command  of 
his  destiny,  Hearn  consciously  formed  an  ideal  to 
which  he  worked,  and  even  labored  at  the  technic  of 
its  realization.  I  have  talked  with  him  upon  these 
and  similar  subjects  for  many  long  hours,  or  got  him 
to  talk  to  me.  The  conversations  were  usually  at 
night,  beneath  trees,  with  the  moonlight  shimmer- 
ing through  and  giving  that  dim,  mystic  light  which 
is  not  light,  so  well  suited  to  such  a  poet  and  to  his 
favorite  subjects. 

As  to  technic,  there  was  never  an  artist  more 
patient  and  persistent  than  he  to  clothe  his  thought 
in  its  perfect  garment  of  words.  Sometimes  he 
would  be  able  to  write  with  comparative  ease  a  large 
number  of  sheets  (of  yellow  paper — he  could  write 
on  no  other)  in  a  day.  At  other  times  the  words 
did  not  suit  or  fit,  and  he  would  rewrite  a  few  pages 
scores  of  times.  Once  I  knew  him  to  labor  over  six 
lines  an  entire  day,  and  then  stop  weary  and  unsat- 
isfied. I  had  to  supply  a  large  waste-basket  and 
have  often  wished  I  had  kept  for  comparison  and  a 
lesson  in  practical  esthetics  the  half -bushel  or  more 
of  wasted  sheets  thrown  away  nearly  every  day. 

Just  as  those  outfitted  with  good  eyes  must  find 
Hearn's  world  too  formless  and  too  magnificently 


176  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

colored,  so  normal  civilized  persons  will  find  it  alto- 
gether too  sexually  and  sensually  charged.  When- 
ever able  to  do  so  he  turns  a  description  to  the 
ghostly,  but  even  then  c'est  tou jours  femme!  A 
mountain  is  like  a  curved  hip,  a  slender  tree  takes 
the  form  of  a  young  girl  budding  into  womanhood, 
etc.  Color,  too,  is  everywhere,  even  where  it  is  not, 
seemingly,  to  our  eyes,  and  even  color  is  often  made 
sensual  and  sexual  by  some  strange  suggestion  or 
allusion. 

Viewing  merit  as  the  due  of  conscious,  honorable, 
unselfish,  and  dutiful  effort,  Hearn's  sole  merit  rises 
from  his  heroic  pursuit  of  an  ideal  of  workman- 
ship. Like  glorious  bursts  of  illuminating  sunshine 
through  the  fogs  and  clouds  of  a  murky  atmosphere 
shine  such  sentences  as  these  : — 

What  you  want,  and  what  we  all  want,  who  possess 
devotion  to  any  noble  idea,  who  hide  any  artistic  idol  in 
a  niche  of  our  heart,  is  that  independence  which  gives  us 
at  least  the  time  to  worship  the  holiness  of  beauty, — be 
it  in  harmonies  of  sound,  of  form,  or  of  color. 

What  you  say  about  the  disinclination  to  work  for  years 
upon  a  theme  for  pure  love's  sake,  without  hope  of 
reward,  touches  me, — because  I  have  felt  that  despair  so 
long  and  so  often.  And  yet  I  believe  that  all  the  world's 
art-work — all  that  which  is  eternal — was  thus  wrought. 
And  I  also  believe  that  no  work  made  perfect  for  the  pure 
love  of  art,  can  perish,  save  by  strange  and  rare  accident. 


Hearn's  Style  177 


Yet  the  hardest  of  all  sacrifices  for  the  artist  is  this 
sacrifice  to  art, — this  trampling  of  self  under  foot!  It  is 
the  supreme  test  for  admittance  into  the  ranks  of  the 
eternal  priests.  It  is  the  bitter  and  fruitless  sacrifice 
which  the  artist's  soul  is  bound  to  make, — as  in  certain 
antique  cities  maidens  were  compelled  to  give  their  vir- 
ginity to  a  god  of  stone!  But  without  the  sacrifice,  can 
we  hope  for  the  grace  of  heaven? 

What  is  the  reward?  The  consciousness  of  inspiration 
only !  I  think  art  gives  a  new  faith.  I  think — all  jesting 
aside — that  could  I  create  something  I  felt  to  be  sublime, 
I  should  feel  also  that  the  Unknowable  had  selected  me 
for  a  mouthpiece,  for  a  medium  of  utterance,  in  the  holy 
cycling  of  its  eternal  purpose;  and  I  should  know  the 
pride  of  the  prophet  that  had  seen  God  face  to  face. 

*  *  *  *  Never  to  abandon  the  pursuit  of  an  artistic 
vocation  for  any  other  occupation  however  lucrative, — not 
even  when  she  remained  apparently  deaf  and  blind  to  her 
worshippers.  So  long  as  one  can  live  and  pursue  his 
natural  vocation  in  art,  it  is  a  duty  with  him  never  to 
abandon  it  if  he  believes  that  he  has  within  him  the  ele- 
ments of  final  success.  Every  time  he  labors  at  aught  that 
is  not  of  art,  he  robs  the  divinity  of  what  belongs  to  her. 


And  the  greatest  of  our  satisfactions  with  Hearn's 
personality  is  that  these  were  not  mere  words,  but 
that  he  consistently,  resolutely,  and  persistently 
practiced  his  preaching.  This  was  the  only  religion 
or  ethics  he  had,  and  praise  God,  he  had  it!  That 
alone  binds  us  to  him  in  any  feeling  of  brotherhood, 
that  only  makes  us  grateful  to  him. 


178  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Style  has  been  too  frequently  and  too  long  con- 
founded with  content.  There  is  the  matter,  the 
thing  to  be  said,  the  story  to  be  told;  and  quite  apart 
from  this  there  is  the  method  of  telling  it,  which, 
properly  viewed,  is  style.  So  long  as  the  teller  of 
the  tale  has  only  borrowed  his  message  or  story  from 
others,  there  cannot  be  raised  much  question  of  orig- 
inality, or  discussion  of  the  datum,  except  in  so  far 
as  pertains  to  the  choice  of  material.  And  so  long 
as  the  stylist  fingers  etymological  dictionaries  for 
"startling  words,"  so  long  will  his  style  remain  of 
the  lower  kind  and  etymologically  unstylish.  When 
the  technic  becomes  unconscious  and  perfect,  there 
is  style,  or  the  art,  merged  into  the  content,  and 
then,  le  style  c'est  I'homme,  or,  as  Hearn  translated 
it,  style  becomes  the  artist's  personality.  In  the 
best  Japanese  works  Hearn  accomplished  this,  and 
with  his  consummate  choice  of  material  there  was 
the  consummate  art-work.  Subject,  method,  cun- 
ning handiwork,  psychologic  analysis,  generous  and 
loyal  sympathy,  color  (not  form) — all  were  fused 
to  a  unity  almost  beyond  disassociation,  and  challeng- 
ing admiration.  But  it  is  not  beyond  our  perfect 
enjoying. 

It  is  true  that  Hearn  has  ignored,  necessarily  and 
wisely  ignored,  the  objective  and  material  side  of 
Japanese  existence.  Mechanics,  nationalism,  econ- 
omy, the  materialism  of  his  material,  had  obviously 


Hearn's  Style  179 


to  be  untouched  in  his  interpretation,  or  in  his  "In- 
terpretation." It  would  have  been  absurd  for  him 
to  have  attempted  any  presentation  or  valuable  phas- 
ing of  this  important  aspect.  That  for  him  was  in 
a  double  sense  ultra  vires.  Such  work  will  not  want 
for  experts.  But  what  Hearn  has  done  was  almost 
wholly  impossible  to  any  other.  His  personal  hered- 
ity, history,  and  physiology,  highly  exceptional,  seem 
to  have  conspired  to  outfit  him  for  this  remarkable 
task. 

There  is  still  another  reason,  at  first  sight  a  con- 
tradicting one,  for  both  Hearn's  fitness  and  his  suc- 
cess in  giving  us  a  literary  incarnation  of  the  spirit 
or  soul  of  Japan  in  the  subjective  sense :  To  his 
readers  it  must  have  appeared  an  insoluble  enigma 
why  this  superlatively  subjective  and  psychical  "sen- 
sitive" should  have  been  such  an  unrecking,  ouire, 
and  enthusiastic  follower  of  Herbert  Spencer's  phil- 
osophy, or  that  part  of  it  given  in  the  "First  Prin- 
ciples." It  is  told  of  an  English  wit  that  when 
asked  if  he  was  willing  to  subscribe  to  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles,  he  promptly  replied,  "Oh,  yes,  forty 
of  them,  if  you  wish."  Hearn  was  similarly  minded 
— minus  the  fun, — and  most  unphilosophically  he 
went  into  utter  captivity,  seemingly,  to  the  un- 
philosophic  philosopher.  And  yet  the  spirit  of 
Spencer's  "First  Principles"  was  in  reality  as  differ- 
ent from  that  of  Hearn  as  was  the  spirit  of  St.  Fran- 


180  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

cis  from  that,  for  instance,  of  Cecil  Rhodes.  The 
contradiction  and  ludicrousness  of  this  mismating  is 
so  easy  of  explanation  that  the  incongruity  is  missed. 
The  forest  is  not  seen  because  of  the  trees.  Hearn 
did  not  have  true  scientific  instinct,  animus,  or  abil- 
ity. Neither  had  Herbert  Spencer — so  far  as  his 
"First  Principles"  is  concerned,  and  as  regards  an 
improved  inductive  method  as  shown  in  the  "Psy- 
chology," "Biology,"  etc.,  Hearn,  according  to  a 
letter,  found  he  could  not  interest  himself  enough  to 
read  one  of  these  later  works.  The  clear  and  well- 
drilled  scientific  intellect  admits  that  if  Spencer  had 
not  published  his  "First  Principles,"  but  had  gath- 
ered the  facts  of  his  later  works  before  publishing 
an  epitomizing  Last  Principles,  the  matter  would 
have  been  as  differently  phased  as  night  and  day. 
Spencer  cared  infinitely  more  for  the  systematization 
than  he  did  for  the  facts  systematized.  Reduced  to 
its  last  analysis,  the  "First  Principles"  was  the  re- 
verse of  a  close  induction  from  the  facts  of  nature 
and  life.  It  presented  the  glitter  of  generalization 
without  the  logic.  The  reverberating  echoes  of  its 
illogic,  sweeping  sonorously  over  the  universe  with 
an  indiscriminate  ignoring  of  the  world-wide  differ- 
ence between  matter  and  life,  caught  the  fancy  of 
the  imprisoned  poet  soul;  he  thoughtlessly  yielded 
a  homage  which,  from  his  standpoint,  was  unjusti- 
fied, and  which  objectively  was  an  unscrutinizing 


Ream's  Style  181 


lip-service.  Subjectively  Spencerism  gave  Hearn 
warrant  for  an  inborn  atheism  and  materialism 
which  had  been  heightened  immoderately  by  the  bit- 
ter teachings  of  experience  into  a  pessimism  so 
horrid  that  one  shuddered  when  looking  into  the 
man's  soul  depths.  Morne  was  a  favorite  word  with 
Hearn,  and  Spencer's  was  a  fateful  philosophy  for 
one  whose  birth  and  education  were  desolation,  and 
whose  sight  of  the  world  was  more  than  morne,  was 
the  abomination  of  desolation,  was  in  truth  the  sheer 
awfulness  of  despair.  Blindness  were  vastly  prefer- 
able to  Hearn's  affliction,  but  if  that  splendid  poet 
St.  Francis  had  been  so  cursed,  his  face  and  his  soul 
would  have  been  ecstatic  with  smiles,  with  joy,  with 
faith,  with  hope,  and  with  love.  So  strange  is  the 
unaccountable  allotment  of  Fate  in  her  endowments, 
gifts,  and  orderings.  There  is  and  there  can  be  no 
blame — only  a  pity  wholly  beyond  expression. 

The  aloofness,  far-awayness,  the  inapproachable 
distance  and  detachment  of  Hearn's  spirit  is  one  of 
the  characteristics  felt  in  reading  his  best  pages. 
Everything  is  infinitely  beyond  our  senses.  To  him 
everything  was  distant:  the  near  was  far,  the  far  was 
at  infinity.  He  thus  truly  became  the  poet  of  the 
au  deld.  His  voice,  itself  an  echo,  comes  to  us  as 
from  the  hush  of  an  eerie  height  above  the  beat  and 
wreck  of  the  waves  of  our  noisy  shore.  His  person- 
ality as  revealed  in  his  writings  is  an  echo,  a  memory, 


182  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

almost  the  memory  of  a  memory,  the  thrill  of  the 
day-dream  of  a  soul  retreating  from  sense. 

Each  day  the  quiet  grew  more  still 
Within  his  soul,  more  shrank  the  will 

Beyond  the  jar  of  sense,  serene, 
Behind  the  hurt  of  world  or  ill, 

Where  sleep  hushed  silences  unseen. 

He  ever  insists  on  a  haunting  glimpse  of  the  pain 
and  the  renunciation  of  others,  of  wasted  and  long- 
dead  faces  and  loves,  always  shrinking  from  our 
gaze,  pallid  in  the  darkling  light  of  the  setting  moon, 
of  vanishing  loves,  grievous  story,  forgotten  myth, 
and  ruined  religion. 

And  yet,  and  yet,  all  that  works  to  make  Hearn 
immortal  in  literature  is,  at  last,  not  art  per  se.  One 
might  quote  freely  showing  that  his  "filing  of  the 
line"  like  that  of  Flaubert,  led  to  nothing,  if  the 
thought  and  feeling  to  be  put  into  the  lines  were 
not  there.  They  were  not  there  with  his  masters, 
Flaubert,  Gautier,  Maupassant,  and  others,  and  so 
these  men  will  not  inherit  literary  immortality. 
They  had  no  soul,  and  only  the  soul,  the  spirit,  can 
be  immortalized.  Hearn's  good  fortune  is  that  un- 
consciously, even  almost  against  his  will,  he  was 
more  than  they,  more  than  an  artist  as  such.  He 
had  something  else  to  do.  If  it  had  not  been  for  his 
poverty,  the  necessity  to  sell  what  he  wrote,  he  would 


Hearn's  Style  183 


surely  have  gone  the  same  .road  to  Avernus  as  his 
masters.  Then,  too,  he  had  no  original  message  to 
write,  because  he  had  no  real  soul,  only  a  borrowed 
one.  Japan  gave  him  her  soul  to  rematerialize  and 
recolor  with  literary  life.  Without  his  Japanese 
work  Hearn  would  have  died  as  a  litterateur  in  the 
year  he  died  as  a  physical  body.  To  tell  her 
k  'ghostly "  stories  was  his  great  office  and  function. 
When  these  were  told  his  work  was  done.  His  old 
gloating  over  the  clotted  villainies  of  medieval  horror 
had  been  much  outgrown,  and  it  had  no  chance  to 
be  used  in  Japan.  The  Japanese  character  would 
not  tolerate  such  things.  The  ghastly  was  trans- 
formed into  the  ghostly,  and  his  Oriental  fancy  was 
luckily  turned  to  better  duties  and  pleasures.  This 
more  than  Flaubert  was  something  not  to  be  got 
from  modern  atheistic  French  "Art  for  Art's  sake," 
nor  from  modern  Levantine  nonentity  of  character. 
How  marvelous  is  his  sympathy  with  his  subject, 
loyalty  to  his  literary  duty,  and  to  his  literary  ideal ! 
His  despised  Irish  father  perhaps  had  slipped  into 
the  otherwise  invisible  and  limp  threads  of  his  Fates 
a  little  mesh  of  spiritual  reality,  which,  dormant, 
unrecognized,  and  even  scorned  by  him,  came  finally 
to  give  him  all  his  valor  and  worth.  He  could 
dower  the  insubstantial  sigh  of  a  long  dead  soul  or 
people  with  the  winged  word.  It  was  a  word  of 
color,  only, — and  color  has  no  objective  existence,-— 


184  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

the  rainbow  is  not  out  there.  And  because  it  is 
spiritual,  not  objective,  the  most  beautiful,  if  the 
most  evanescent  of  all  earthly  things,  is  color.  The 
hearers  of  soundless  music,  and  the  lovers  of  "the 
light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  shore'7  will  under- 
stand what  is  meant.  For  them  Hearn  really  wrote : 
they  are  few,  and  scattered  far,  but  Hearn  will 
magnificently  multiply  the  number.  His  amazing 
merit  is  that  while  without  the  great  qualities  which 
make  the  greatest  writers,  he  wrought  such  miracles 
of  winning  grace  and  persuading  beauty. 

That  he  wrought  against  his  will,  and  by  the  over- 
coming of  a  seemingly  cruel  Fate,  puts  him  almost 
outside  of  our  personal  gratitude.  We  take  the  gift 
from  a  divinity  he  did  not  recognize,  one  that  used 
the  rebellious  hand  and  the  almost  blind  eye  as  a 
writing  instrument.  The  lover  of  the  gruesome,  the 
Spencerian  scientist,  the  man  himself,  must  have 
wondered  at  the  message  when  he  came  out  from 
under  the  influence  of  the  pitiless  inspiration. 

One  of  Hearn's  dangers  was  discursiveness,  or 
want  of  conciseness  and  intensity.  "Chita"  showed 
it,  and  the  West  Indian  work  lost  in  value  because 
of  it.  It  is  the  danger  of  all  those  writers  who  lack 
creative  ability,  and  who  depend  upon  "local  color," 
and  "style"  for  their  effect.  The  story's  the  thing, 
after  all !  In  Hearn's  translations,  and  especially  in 
"Stray  Leaves,"  he  for  the  moment  caught  the  view 


Hearn's  Style  185 


of  the  value  of  the  content,  saw  how  the  fact,  dra- 
matic, intense,  and  passionate  is  the  all-desirable ;  the 
art  of  its  presentation  is  the  art  of  letting  it  flash 
forth  upon  the  reader  with  few,  apt,  and  flamelike 
words,  which  reveal  and  not  conceal  the  life  and  soul 
of  the  act  and  of  the  actor.  He  tended  to  forget 
this.  In  "Karma,"  besides,  or  rather  by  reason  of, 
the  moral, — his  newly  got  psyche, — he  returned  to 
a  reliance  upon  essentials,  upon  the  datum  of  the 
spirit,  and  not  upon  its  reflections,  refractions,  and 
chromatics.  The  beautiful  spectrum  was  there  re- 
focussed  into  white  light,  and  the  senses  disappeared 
to  reveal  behind  them  the  divinity  of  soul.  That 
art-lesson  was  never  forgotten  by  Hearn,  and  his 
Japanese  work  had  a  purity  and  a  reality,  a  white 
heat,  which  make  his  previous  stories  and  sketches 
seem  pale  and  weak. 

Questions  of  style  and  form  sometimes  run  in- 
evitably into  those  of  content  and  of  logic.  Essen- 
tially wanting  the  rigorous  training  of  form,  with- 
out the  content  and  method  of  the  scientific  intellect, 
all  Hearn's  work  shows  a  lack  of  system,  order,  and 
subordination  of  parts.  In  any  single  one  of  the 
Japanese  volumes  the  absence  of  logic  is  lamentably 
evident.  He  constantly  repeats  himself,  and  the 
warp  of  some  of  his  themes  is  worn  threadbare.  His 
most  ambitious  work,  "Japan,"  is,  in  truth,  a  regath- 
ering  and  a  restatement  in  more  objective  style,  of 


186  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

his  previous  imaginative  studies.  Almost  the  only 
added  thought  concerns  the  difference  between 
Shintoism  and  ancestor-worship  and  the  truism  that 
Japan  is  to-day  ruthlessly  sacrificing  the  life  of  the 
individual  to  that  of  the  nation.  The  lack  of  scholar- 
ship and  of  the  scientific  animus  (even  in  a  field, 
folk-lore,  more  nearly  his  own  than  any  other)  comes 
to  view  in  his  mistake  of  supposing  Spencer  an 
authority  on  the  subject  of  the  origin  of  religion, 
and  in  the  blunder  that  assumed  ancestor-worship  to 
be  original  in  Japanese  history  and  religion.  An- 
cestor-worship, according  to  Griffis,  Knox,  and  other 
distinguished  authorities,  was  unknown  to  the  an- 
cient writers  of  Mppon  and  was  imported  from 
China.  How  threadbare — and  yet  how  deftly,  even 
charmingly  concealed ! — was  the  wearing  of  his 
favorite  themes,  is  shown  by  Hearn' s  fateful  return 
to  the  gruesome,  especially  in  the  later  books, 
"Kott  "  and  "Kwaidan."  These  stories  of  the  dead 
and  of  morbid  necrophilism  are  witnesses  of  Hearn' s 
primitive  interest  in  the  ghastly,  impossible  to  be 
renounced  or  sloughed,  not  to  be  replaced  by  desire 
for  the  supersensual,  or  by  resolve  to  transform  the 
loathsome  into  the  ghostly.  Hearn  should  never 
have  been  seduced  into  the  delusion  that  he  could 
become  the  spokesman  of  any  scientific  animus, 
methods  or  results.  Erudition,  logic,  systematiza- 
tion,  were  to  him  impossible.  His  function  was 


LAFCADIO    IIEARN 
From  a  photoyraph  by  Gutekunst,  1889 


Hearn's  Style  187 


another  and  of  a  different  nature,  and  his  peculiar 
ability  was  for  other  tasks.  If  we  are  adequately 
to  appreciate  the  exquisiteness  of  the  earlier  Japa- 
nese works,  we  will  forget  the  "Japan,  an  Inter- 
pretation." 

If  we  look  upon  Hearn  as  a  painter,  almost  the 
sole  color  of  his  palette  was  mummy  brown,  the  pow- 
dered flesh  of  the  ancient  dead  holding  in  solution 
their  griefs,  their  hopes,  their  laves,  their  yearnings, 
which  he  found  to  sink  always  to  pulselessness,  and 
to  end  in  eternal  defeat !  But  the  pallor  and  sad- 
ness4 for  the  brief  moment  of  their  resuscitation  was 
divinely  softened  and  atoningly  beautified.  Then 
they  disappeared  again  in  the  waste  and  gloom  from 
which  love  and  poesy  had  evoked  them. 

Felled  in  the  struggle  and  defeat  of  the  eternal 
battle  with  death,  the  vegetation  of  untold  ages 
long  ago  drifted  to  an.  amorphous  stratum  of  un- 
distinguishable  millionfold  corpses.  Compression, 
deferred  combustion  and  overshrouding  transmuted 
and  preserved  it  for  a  loiig-after-coming  time,  for 
our  warming,  lighting,  and  delighting.  This  has  a 
perfect  analogy  in  the  history  and  use  of  tradition, 
myth,  folk-lore,  custom,  and  religion,  those  sym- 
bolic and  concrete  epitomes  of  man's  long  ancestral 
growths  and  strivings,  those  true  black  diamonds  of 
humanity's  experiences,  its  successes  and  failures,  of 
its  ideals  and  disappointments.  Hearn's  artistry 


188  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

consisted  in  catching  up  these  gems,  these  extin- 
guished souls  washed  from  a  world  of  graves  to  the 
threshold  of  his  miracle-working  imagination,  and  in 
making  them  flush  for  an  instant  with  the  semblance 
of  life.  With  what  exquisite  skill  and  grace  he  was 
able  to  concentrate  upon  them  the  soft  light-rays  of 
a  fancy  as  subtle  and  beautifying  as  ever  has  been 
given  to  mortal! 


CHAPTEE  XI 

SUMMARY     AND     CONCLUSION 

CONCERNING  Hearn's  outfitting  of  character  by  his 
parents  little  or  nothing  is  known.  It  is  of  com- 
parative unimportance  because  only  a  slight  judicial 
familiarity  with  his  works,  especially  those  of  the 
pre-Japanese  periods,  demonstrates  that  so  far  as  con- 
cerns substratum  and  substance  of  character  he  had 
neither.  There  was  an  interior  void,  an  absence  of 
psychic  reality,  which  mocked  his  friends  and  which 
likewise  balked  at  true  creativeness.  He  never 
made  a  plot  or  blew  the  breath  of  life  into  a  char- 
acter; his  datum  was  always  provided  from  without 
and  by  another.  He  was  a  reflector  only, — plus  a 
colorist — but  a  colorist  of  unrivalled  excellence  and 
power.  Form  he  knew  not,  had  never  seen,  and 
that  is  also  his  second  conditioning  weakness  as  an 
artist.  Even  much  of  his  philosophy  was  to  justify 
the  sensualism,  sensualisticism,  pessimism,  and  god- 
lessness  which  are  early  manifest.  But  it  was  a 
product  taken  over  from  another,  a  hastily  devoured 
meal  without  mastication,  digestion,  or  assimilation. 
The  interior  emptiness  was  pathetically  emphasized 
by  the  fact  of  a  contentless  experience  which  also 
worked  to  deprive  his  mind  of  spontaneous  original- 
ity. He  never  loved,  except  in  one  sorry  way,  never 

189 


190  '         Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

suffered  much,  never  lived  much,  for  he  was  a  hard 
worker,  and  he  was  always  seeking  the  ever-post- 
poned, ever-unsatisfying  Paradise,  so  vainly  hunted 
for,  and  which  none  ever  finds  except  in  himself. 
IJim  fehlt  die  Liebe,  was  said  of  Heine, — how  much 
truer  is  it  of  Hearn !  Conspiring  with  a  native  lack 
of  originality  and  want  of  normal  experience,  his 
enormous  near-sightedness  made  his  choice  of  mate- 
rial and  method  of  handling  it  what  we  know.  If 
anything  was  "inherited/7  it  was  a  pseudo-Oriental- 
ism, a  love  of  the  monstrous  and  gruesome,  an  aston- 
ishing indifference  to  Occidental  history  and  its  con- 
clusions as  to  sexual  and  social  laws,  a  spontaneous 
faith  in  faithlessness,  a  belief  in  irreligion,  and  an 
almost  hopeless  trend  toward  fatalism  and  its  inevit- 
able consequent,  pessimism.  Improvidence,  financial 
as  well  as  moral,  and  disloyalty,  to  his  friends  as  well 
as  to  his  higher  nature,  were  his  life-long,  crippling, 
and  condemning  sins.  Two  mysteries  seem  almost 
inexplainable.  We  know  why  others  had  to  give 
him  his  themes,  and  whence  and  how  he  became  a 
mirror,  or  an  echo;  and  we  understand  how  the  echo- 
ing became  also  wondrously,  even  exaggeratedly, 
but  beautifully,  colored.  We  can  almost  see  why 
he  was  foolishly  and  absurdly  disloyal  to  personal 
friends,  often  treating  worst  those  who  were  the  most 
kind  to  him;  best,  those  who  were  sometimes  most 
cunningly  selfish.  We  may  explain  his  ridiculous 


Summary  and  Conclusion  191 

Wanderlust.  But  two  attributes  are  beyond  all 
analysis: — one  was  a  thing  illogical  with,  his  char- 
acter, his  cleaving  to  an  ideal  of  literary  workman- 
ship at  the  cost  of  selfishness,  friendships,  and  tem- 
porary success;  and  the  other  was  his  marvellous  lit- 
erary and  psychologic  sympathy  with  whatever  mind, 
people,  circumstance,  story,  or  tradition,  accident  or 
choice  brought  before  the  echoing  or  mirroring  mind. 
If  it  were  faint,  ghostly,  and  far  away,  he  was  a  true 
thaumaturgist  in  loving  it  into  life,  and  living  it 
into  love. 

This  beautiful  sympathy  and  literary  loyalty  made 
it  possible  for  Hearn  to  use  the  words  of  faith  and 
of  religion,  even  of  morality,  as  if  they  were  his 
own,  while  with  them  he  had  no  personal  sympathy 
whatever.  For  instance,  he  could  speak,  as  if  from 
his  heart  out,  of  "a  million  astral  lamps  lighted 
in  the  vast  and  violet  dome  of  God's  everlasting 
mosque."  He  could  praise  as  a  sublime  exhortation 
the  command,  "O  ye  that  are  about  to  sleep,  com- 
mend your  souls  to  Him  who  never  sleeps !"  It  is, 
of  course,  true  that  in  Hearn's  mind,  doubtless,  the 
poorest  heathen  or  savage  virtue  was  sublimely 
virtuous,  and  any  barbaric  vice  had  more  of  virtue 
in  it  than  of  viciousness.  Surely  the  most  paltry 
Oriental  excellence  was  far  lovelier  to  him  than 
any  Occidental  heroism  or  beauty  however  splendid. 
We  are  thus  helped  to  understand  how  his  mind 


192  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

could  seem  to  flush  with  religious  or  ethical  enthu- 
siasm, while  the  mosque  of  his  real  heart  was  only 
a  chasm  of  gloomy  negation  or  a  chaos  of  hideous 
death.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  had  no  con- 
structive mind,  and  as  only  one  kind  of  doing,  writ- 
ing, was  possible  to  him,  because  of  his  near-sight- 
edness, he  must  needs  hate  Occidentalism,  and  ex- 
alt with  a  somewhat  ludicrous  praise  the  vapid,  and 
even  pitiful  childishness  of  semi-barbaric  Oriental- 
ism. The  illogicality  reaches  its  acme  when  Hearn, 
atheistic,  disloyal,  and  unethical,  was  compelled,  as 
in  some  of  his  Japanese  pages,  to  put  a  morality  and 
a  religion  behind  the  acts  and  in  the  hearts  of  his 
characters,  which  with  his  and  with  their  atheism, 
was,  dramatically,  so  out  of  place  that  the  incon- 
gruity would  make  us  smile  if  it  were  not  all  done 
with  such  a  sweet  and  haunting  grace.  The  culmi- 
nation of  the  contradictory  trends  is  in  "Karma." 
To  put  it  bluntly,  Hearn  had  no  spark  of  practical 
sexual  virtue,  and  yet  praise  one  shall,  marvel  at  one 
must,  the  literary  and  dramatic  honor  which  could, 
as  in  "Karma,"  so  sympathetically  describe  the  al- 
most unscalable  summits  of  virtue, — there  where  in 
holy  silence,  Passion  gazes  with  awe  at  her  divine 
Master,  Duty. 

A  negative  condition  of  this  sympathy  was  the 
interior  voidness  of  his  character,  the  non-existence 
of  reality  within  him,  which  thus  allowed  the  posi- 


Summary  and  Conclusion  193 

tive  loyalty  to  his  subject  free  play;  yet  that  which 
gave  it  leave  to  be,  did  not  explain  the  genesis  or  qual- 
ity of  life  of  the  being.  But  have  a  care !  Do  not  ask 
the  interest  in  any  one  subject  to  last  for  more  than 
a  fleeting  moment!  Early  and  always  he  possessed 
the  rare,  the  wonderful  gift  of  the  instant,  the 
iridescent,  the  winged  word.  At  last  was  presented 
to  him  what  he  called  a  "soul,"  and  that,  in  con- 
junction with  his  growth  in  artistic  technic,  in  his 
handling  of  colors,  and  in  procuring  nobler  data, 
helped  to  give  the  Japanese  work  a  content  and  an 
enduring  substance  which  distinguishes  it  from  that 
of  all  others.  This  atones  for  all  the  hurt  that  pre- 
cedes, and  it  is  a  benefaction  and  a  delight  to  the 
entire  world.  •  In  reward  Literature  will  place  upon 
his  head  one  of  her  loveliest  crowns. 


CHAPTER  XII 

APPRECIATIONS     AND     EPITOMES 

TAKEN  as  a  whole,  the  criticisms  upon  Hearn's 
work  are  complimentary.  He  has  his  warm  ad- 
mirers, and  some  who  are  not  so  enthusiastic;  but 
those  who  criticise  adversely  do  so  with  a  gentle- 
ness,— I  may  say,  almost  a  reluctance  that  is  perhaps 
the  reflection  of  the  spirit  of  his  work.  And  what- 
ever else  these  may  offer,  all  agree  that  his  writings 
have  a  unique  charm. 

Following  are  a  few  excerpts  which  should  give 
an  average  of  opinions : 

"One  great  secret  of  his  success  in  interpreting 
the  Japanese  mind  and  temperament  lay  in  his  pa- 
tience in  seeking  out  and  studying  minutely  the 
little  things  of  a  people  said  to  be  great  in  such. 
As  Amenomori  says  of  Hearn's  mind,  it  'called  forth 
life  and  poetry  out  of  dust.'  "  (327)1 

"As  an  interpreter  of  the  Japanese  heart,  mind, 
hand  and  soul,  Mr.  Hearn  has  no  superior.  But  he 
will  not  convert  those  who  in  health  of  body  and 
mind  love  the  landmarks  of  the  best  faith  of  the 
race.  It  is  very  hard  to  make  fog  and  miasmatic 
exhalations,  even  when  made  partly  luminous  with 

irThe  numbers  refer  to  the  corresponding  items  in  the  Bibliog- 
raphy. 

194 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  195 

rhetoric,  attractive  to  the  intellect  that  loves  head- 
lands and  mountain-tops.  The  product  of  despair 
can  never  compete  in  robust  minds  with  the  product 
of  faith."  (357.) 

"Sympathy  and  exquisiteness  of  touch  are  the 
characteristics  of  Mr.  Hearn's  genius.  He  is  a 
chameleon,  glowing  with  the  hue  of  outer  objects 
or  of  inward  moods,  or  altogether  iridescent.  He 
becomes  translucent  and  veined  like  a  moth  on  a 
twig,  or  mottled  as  if  with  the  protective  golden 
browns  of  fallen  leaves.  We  may  not  look  for 
architectonic  or  even  plastic  powers.  His  is  not  the 
mind  which  constructs  of  inner  necessity,  which 
weaves  plots  and  schemes,  or  thinks  of  its  frame  as 
it  paints.  He  attempts  no  epic  of  history.  The 
delver  for  sociologic  or  theologic  spoil  must  seek 
deeper  waters 

"In  his  later  books  the  all-potent  influence  of 
Japanese  restraint  seems  to  have  refined  and  sub- 
dued his  wonderful  style  to  more  perfect  harmo- 
nies  

"His  chapters  are  long  or  short  as  are  his  moods. 
There  is  little  organic  unity  in  them;  no  scientific 
aim  or  philosophic  grasp  rounds  them  into  form. 
Even  his  paragraphs  have  little  cohesion.  Speaking 
of  the  forming  of  his  sentences,  he  himself  has  com- 
pared it  to  the  focusing  of  an  image,  each  added 
word  being  like  the  turn  of  a  delicate  screw."  (306.) 


196  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"The  secret  of  the  charm  that  we  feel  to  such  a 
marked  degree  in  Mr.  Lafcadio  Hearn's  volumes  is 
that,  in  contrast  to  other  writers,  he  does  take  the 
Japanese  very  seriously  indeed."  (316.) 

"To  the  details  of  life  and  thought  in  Japan  Mr. 
Hearn's  soul  seems  everywhere  and  at  al]  times  re- 
sponsive. He  catches  in  his  eye  and  on  his  pen 
minute  motes  scarcely  noticeable  by  the  keen  natives 
themselves."  (367.) 

"He  has  written  nothing  on  Japan  equal  in  length 
to  his  tales  of  West  Indian  life.  But  while  we  de- 
plore this  reserve  of  a  writer  who  possesses  every 
quality  of  style,  except  humor,  we  have  reason  to  be 
grateful  for  whatever  he  gives  us."  (307.) 

"The  matchless  prose  and  the  sympathy  of  Mr. 
Hearn."  (324.) 

"Mr.  Hearn  has  the  sympathetic  temperament,  the 
minute  mental  vision,  the  subdued  style  peculiar  to 
all  that  is  good  in  Japanese  art  and  literature,  needed 
for  the  accomplishment  of  a  labour  which  to  him 
has  been  a  labour  of  love  indeed.  Here  we  have  no 
mawkish  sentimentality,  no  excessive  laudation,  on 
the  one  hand;  on  the  other,  no  Occidental  harshness, 
no  Occidental  ignorance  of  the  sweet  mystery  of 
Eastern  ways  of  life  and  modes  of  thought.  What 
this  most  charming  of  writers  on  Far  Eastern  sub- 
jects has  seen  all  may  see,  but  only  those  can  under- 
stand who  are  endowed  with  a  like  faculty  of  per- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  197 

ception  of  unobtrusive  beauty,  and  a  like  power,  it 
must  be  added,  of  patient  and  prolonged  study  of 
common  appearances  and  everyday  events."  (295.) 

"A  man  has  just  died,  intelligent  and  generous, 
who  had  succeeded  in  reconciling  in  his  heart,  the 
clear,  rational  ideas  of  the  West  together  with  the 
obscure  deep  sense  of  Extreme — Asia:  Lafcadio 
Hearn.  In  the  hospitality  of  his  recipient  soul,  high 
European  civilization  and  high  Japanese  civilization 
found  a  meeting-place;  harmonized;  completed,  one 
in  the  other 

"In  English-speaking  countries,  especially  in  the 
United  States,  Lafcadio  Hearn  already  enjoys  a  just 
reputation.  The  lovers  of  the  exotic,  esteem  him  as 
equal  to  Kipling  or  Stevenson.  In  France,  the 
Revue  de  Paris  has  begun  to  make  him  known,  by 
publishing  some  of  his  best  articles,  elegantly  and 
faithfully  translated.  His  budding  fame  is  destined 
to  increase,  as  Europe  takes  a  greater  interest  in  the 
arts  and  the  thoughts  of  the  Extreme^Orient.  His 
prose,  exact  and  harmonious,  will  be  admired  as  one 
of  the  finest  since  Ruskin  wrote:  his  very  personal 
style,  at  the  same  time  subtle  and  powerful,  will  be 
noted:  he  will  be  especially  admired  for  his  delicate 
and  profound  intelligence  of  that  Japanese  civiliza- 
tion which,  to  us,  remains  so  mysterious.  What 
characterizes  the  talent  of  Lafcadio  Hearn,  that 
which  gives  it  its  precious  originality,  is  the  rare 


198  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

mixture  of  scientific  precision  and  idealistic  enthu- 
siasm: his  work  might  justly  be  entitled  Truth  and 
Poesy:  'In  reading  these  essays/  says  one  of  our 
best  existing  Japanese  scholars,  Professor  Chamber- 
lain, 'one  feels  the  truth  of  Richard  Wagner's  state- 
ment :  " Alles  verstdndniss  Jcommt  uns  nur  durcJi  die 
Liebe"  (All  understanding  comes  to  us  only  through 
Love.)  If  Lafcadio  Hearn  understands  Japan  best, 
and  makes  it  better  understood  than  any  other 
writer,  it  is  because  he  loves  it  best.' 

"Lafcadio  Hearn  describes  with  intelligence,  with 
love  all  aspects  of  Japanese  life :  Nature  and  in- 
habitants; landscapes,  animals  and  flowers;  material 
life  and  life  moral;  classic  Art  and  popular  litera- 
ture; philosophies,  religions  and  superstitions.  He 
awakens  in  us  an  exquisite  feeling  of  old  aristocratic 
and  feudal  Japan:  he  explains  to  us  the  prodigious 
revolution  that  modern  Japan  has  created  in  thirty 
years 

"Hearn  has  consecrated  to  the  study  of  Japanese 
art  some  of  his  most  curious  psychological  analyses. 

"Lafcadio  Hearn  takes  a  deep  interest  in  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  Japanese.  He  studies  with  the 
minutest  exactness  the  ancient  customs  of  Shintoism, 
high  moral  precepts  of  Buddhism,  and  also  the  pop- 
ular superstitions  that  hold  on,  for  instance,  to  the 
worship  of  foxes,  and  to  the  idea  of  pre-existence." 
(393.) 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  199 

"To  a  certain  large  class  of  his  adopted  country- 
men, his  hatred  of  Christianity,  which  was  pro- 
nounced long  before  he  went  to  Japan,  and  his  fond- 
ness for  Oriental  cults  of  all  kinds,  was  recommenda- 
tion. But  it  is  still  an  open  question  whether  he 
did  harm  or  good  to  the  Japanese  by  his  advocacy 
of  their  superstitions 

"Hearn's  books  are  little  known  to  the  multitude. 
But  they  are  familiar  to  an  influential  class  the  world 
over.  In  him  Japan  has  lost  a  powerful  and  flatter- 
ing advocate,  and  the  English  world  one  of  its  mas- 
ters in  style."  (332.) 

"Mr.  Hearn  was  not  a  philosopher  or  a  judicial 
student  of  life.  He  was  a  gifted,  born  impression- 
ist, with  a  style  resembling  that  of  the  French  Pierre 
Loti.  His  stories  and  descriptions  are  delicate  or 
gorgeous  word  pictures  of  the  subtler  and  more  elu- 
sive qualities  of  Oriental  life."  (293.) 

"His  art  is  the  power  of  suggestion  through  per- 
fect restraint.  .  .  .  He  stands  and  proclaims  his 
mysteries  at  the  meeting  of  three  ways.  To  the  re- 
ligious instinct  of  India, — Buddhism  in  particular, — 
which  history  has  engrafted  on  the  aesthetic  sense  of 
Japan,  Mr.  Hearn  brings  the  interpreting  spirit  of 
Occidental  science;  and  these  three  traditions  are 
fused  by  the  peculiar  sympathies  of  his  mind  into 
one  rich  and  novel  compound.  ...  In  these  es- 
says and  tales,  whose  substance  is  so  strangely  mingled 


200  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

together  out  of  the  austere  dreams  of  India  and  the 
subtle  beauty  of  Japan  and  the  relentless  science  of 
Europe,  I  read  vaguely  of  many  things  which 
hitherto  were  quite  dark."  (308.) 

"He  brings  to  the  study  of  all  aspects  of  Japanese 
life,  intelligence,  and  love;  he  also  sets  sail  in  his 
descriptions  and  analyses  towards  a  general  theory 
on  life ;  he  is  a  Japonizmg  psychologist :  he  is  also  a 
philosopher 

"At  all  events,  Lafcadio  Hearn  has  the  merit  of 
recalling  powerfully  to  the  Europeans  of  Europe  the 
importance,  often  misunderstood,  of  Eastern  civiliza- 
tion. No  one  better  than  this  Japonizing  enthusiast 
to  make  us  feel  what  there  is  of  narrowness  in  our 
habitual  conception  of  the  world,  in  our  individual- 
istic literature,  misunderstanding  too  much  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Past  in  .our  anthropocentric  art, 
neglecting  Nature  too  often,  penetrated  too  'singly' 
in  our  classic  philosophy  with  Greco-Latin  and  Chris- 
tian influences.  Till  now/  says  Lafcadk>  Hearn 
very  forcibly,  'having  lived  only  in  one  hemisphere, 
we  have  thought  but  half  thoughts.'  We  should 
enlarge  our  hearts  and  our  minds  by  taking  into  our 
circle  of  culture,  all  the  art  and  all  the  thought  of 
the  extreme  East. 

"From  the  philosophical  view-point,  Lafcadio 
Hearn  has  the  merit  of  calling  attention  to  the  high 
value  of  Shintoism,  and  above  all  of  Buddhism.  His 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  201 

work  deserves  to  exercise  an  influence  on  the  re- 
ligious ideas  of  the  West.  If  religion  can  no  longer 
occupy  any  place  in  the  intellectual  life  of  human- 
ity, more  and  more  invaded  by  science,  she  can 
subsist  a  long  time  yet,  perhaps  always,  in  her  senti- 
mental life."  (392.) 

"For  that  role  [as  interpreter  of  Japan]  he  was 
eminently  unfitted  both  by  temperament  and  train- 
ing. Indeed  he  was  not  slow  to  recognize  his  lack 
of  the  judicial  faculty,  and  on  one  occasion  acknowl- 
edges that  he  is  a  'creature  of  extremes.'  .  .  .  .  . 
But  Hearn  often  succeeds  in  reaching  the  heart  of 
things  by  his  faculty  of  sympathy,  in  virtue  of  which 
alone  his  books  deserve  perusal;  when  he  fails  it  is 
because  of  a  lack  of  the  unimpassioned  judicial 
faculty,  a  tendency  to  subordinate  reason  to  feeling, 
an  inclination  to  place  sympathy  in  the  position  of 
judge  rather  than  guide."  (359.) 

"Lafcadio  Hearn  not  only  buried  himself  in  the 
Japanese  world,  but  gave  his  ashes  to  the  soil  so 
often  devasted  by  earthquake,  typhoon,  tidal  wave 
and  famine,  but  ever  fertile  in  blooms  of  fancy 
which  lies  under  the  Kiver  of  Heaven.  The  air  of 
Nippon,  poor  in  ozone,  is  over  populated  by  goblins. 
No  writer  has  ever  excelled  this  child  of  Greece  and 
Ireland  in  interpreting  the  weird  fancies  of  peasant 
and  poet  in  the  land  of  bamboo  and  cherry  flowers. 
Hearn's  life  seemed  crushed  under  'the 


202  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

horror  of  infinite  Possibility.7     Hence  perhaps  the 
weird  fascination  of  his  work  and  style."     (348.) 

EPITOMES 

AVATAR  (281). — It  was  during  the  Cincinnati 
period  that  Hearn  made  this — his  first  transla- 
tion from  the  Erench.  Writing  of  it  in  1886,  he 
says : — 

I  have  a  project  on  foot — to  issue  a  series  of  transla- 
tions of  archaeological  and  artistic  French  romance — 
Flaubert's  "Tentation  de  Saint- Antoine ";  De  Nerval's 
"Voyage  en  Orient";  Gautier's  "Avatar";  Loti's  most 
extraordinary  African  and  Polynesian  novels;  and  Beau- 
delaire's  "Petits  Poemes  en  Prose." 

But  three  years  later,  he  writes : — 

The  work  of  Gautier  cited  by  you — "Avatar" — was  my 
first  translation  from  the  French.  I  never  could  find  a 
publisher  for  it,  however,  and  threw  the  MS.  away  at  last 
in  disgust.  It  is  certainly  a  wonderful  story;  but  the 
self-styled  Anglo-Saxon  has  so  much — prudery  that  even 
this  innocent  phantasy  seems  to  shock  his  sense  of  the 
"proper." 

LA  TENTATION  DE  SAINT- ANTOINE  (282),  was  prob- 
ably translated  at  about  the  same  time.  Hearn  failed 
to  find  a  publisher  who  would  take  it,  but  the  manu- 
script is  still  in  my  possession.  Hearn' s  own  com- 
plete scenario,  together  with  a  description  of  the 
manuscript,  is  given  on  another  page.  I  quote  from 
Hearn  about  this  work : — 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  203 

The  original  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  exotically 
strange  pieces  of  writing  in  any  language,  and  weird  be- 
yond description. 

Of  his  own  translation,  he  writes: — 

The  work  is  audacious  in  parts;  but  I  think  nothing 
ought  to  be  suppressed.  That  serpent-scene,  the  crucified 
lions,  the  breaking  of  the  chair  of  gold,  the  hideous  bat- 
tles about  Carthage, — these  pages  contain  pictures  that 
ought  not  to  remain  entombed  in  a  foreign  museum. 

The  winter  of  1877,  the  year  Hearn  arrived  in 
New  Orleans,  he  corresponded  with  the  Cincinnati 
Commercial  under  the  name  of  "Ozias  Midwinter" 
(219).  Excerpts  from  this  series  of  letters  are  given 
in  the  chapter,  "The  New  Orleans  Period." 

ONE  OF  CLEOPATRA'S  NIGHTS  (20)  was  the  first 
book  to  be  published.  The  translations  were  made 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  Cincinnati  period,  but 
the  volume  did  not  appear  until  some  years  later, 
while  Hearn  was  in  New  Orleans.  It  was  pre- 
pared at  the  hour  when  his  craving  for  the  exotic 
and  weird  was  at  its  height.  From  the  opening 
word  to  the  last  the  six  stories  are  one  long  Dionysian 
revel  of  an  Arabian  Night's  Dream,  and  within 
their  pages  it  is  not  difficult  to  feel  that  "one  is  truly 
dead  only  when  one  is  no  longer  loved."  What  an 
exotic  group  of  names  it  is: — Cleopatra,  ashe  that 
made  the  whole  world's  bale  and  bliss";  Clarimonde, 
"Who  was  famed  in  her  life-time 
As  the  fairest  of  women." 


204  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


Arria  Marcella;  the  Princess  Hermonthis;  Omphale; 
and  the  one  "fairer  than  all  daughters  of  men, 
lovelier  than  all  fantasies  realized  in  stone' ' — 
BTyssia.  It  is  a  tapestry  woven  of  the  lights  and 
jewels  and  passions  of  an  antique  world.  "You  will 
find  in  Gautier,"  Hearn  writes,  "a  perfection  of 
melody,  a  warmth  of  word  coloring,  a  voluptuous 
delicacy";  "Gautier  could  create  mosaics  of  word 
jewelry  without  equals."  Hearn's  "pet  stories"  are 
"Clarimonde"  and  "Arria  Marcella."  Is  it  strange 
that  he  should  delight  in  these  beautiful  vampires  ? 

In  this  work,  and  in  the  tales  to  follow  we  already 
perceive  that  color  is  to  become  a  sort  of  fetich  to 
be  worshipped.  Here  in  the  studio  of  another  artist, 
he  serves  his  first  apprenticeship,  and  from  the 
highly  toned  palette  of  Gautier  he  learns  how  to  mix 
and  lay  on  the  colors  that  he  himself  is  later  to  use 
so  richly. 

In  speaking  of  this  book  a  critic  says : — 
"His  learning  and  his  inspiration  were  wholly 
French  in  these  productions,  as  also  in  what  was  his 
first  and  in  some  ways  his  best  book,  "One  of  Cleo- 
patra's Nights,"  and  other  tales  translated  from 
Theophile  Gautier.  While  Hearn  was  faithful  to 
his  original,  he  also  improved  upon  it  and  many  a 
scholar  who  knows  both  French  and  English  has  con- 
fessed under  the  rose  that  Gautier  is  outdone." 
(332.) 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  205 

Of  his  work  Hearn  writes : — 

You  asked  me  about  Gautier.  I  have  read  and  possess 
nearly  all  his  works;  and  before  I  was  really  mature 
enough  for  such  an  undertaking,  I  translated  his  six  most 
remarkable  short  stories.  The  work  contains,  I  regret  to 
say,  several  shocking  errors,  and  the  publishers  refused  me 
the  right  to  correct  the  plates.  The  book  remains  one  of 
the  sins  of  my  literary  youth,  but  I  am  sure  my  judgment 
of  the  value  of  the  stories  was  correct. 

While  preparing  his  next  book,  Hearn  published 
in  the  Century,  "The  Scenes  of  Cable's  Romances" 
(220).  In  this  article  he  vivifies  the  quarters  and 
dwellings  that  Mr.  Cable  in  his  delightful  stories  had 
already  made  famous. 

THE  FIRST  MUEZZIN,  BILAL  (405),  was  written  in 
the  fall  of  1883,  during  the  New  Orleans  period. 
It  is  a  beautiful,  serious  piece  of  work,  and  is  written 
with  the  fine,  sonorous  quality  that  such  a  theme 
should  inspire.  That  it  was  a  labor  of  love  is  shown 
in  Hearn's  letters  written  at  its  inception  to  Mr. 
Krehbiel,  who  was  an  invaluable  aid  to  him  in  com- 
piling its  musical  part.  "Bilal"  was  probably  pub- 
lished finally  in  the  Times-Democrat,  after  being  re- 
fused by  Harper's,  the  Century,  and  some  others. 

The  traveler  slumbering  for  the  first  time  within  the 
walls  of  an  Oriental  city,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  a  minaret, 
can  scarcely  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  solemn  beauty  of 
the  Mohammedan  Call  to  Prayer.  If  he  have  worthily 
prepared  himself,  by  the  study  of  book  and  of  languages, 


206  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

for  the  experiences  of  Eastern  travel,  he  will  probably 
have  learned  by  heart  the  words  of  the  sacred  summons, 
and  will  recognize  their  syllables  in  the  sonorous  chant  of 
the  Muezzin, — while  the  rose-colored  light  of  an  Egyptian 
or  Syrian  dawn  expands  its  flush  to  the  stars.  Four 
times  more  will  he  hear  that  voice  ere  morning  again 
illuminates  the  east: — under  the  white  blaze  of  noon;  at 
the  sunset  hour,  when  the  west  is  fervid  with  incandescent 
gold  and  vermilion;  in  the  long  after-glow  of  orange  and 
emerald  fires;  and,  still  later,  when  a  million  astral  lamps 
have  been  lighted  in  the  vast  and  violet  dome  of  God's 
everlasting  mosque. 

.  In  four  parts  Hearn  tells  the  history  of  Bilal,  who 
was  an  African  black,  an  Abyssinian, — famed  for  his 
fortitude  as  a  confessor,  for  his  zeal  in  the  faith  of  the 
Prophet,  and  for  the  marvellous  melody  of  his  voice,' 
whose  echoes  have  been  caught  up  and  prolonged  and 
multiplied  by  all  the  muezzins  of  Islam,  through  the  pass- 
ing of  more  than  twelve  hundred  years.  .  .  .  And  the 
words  chanted  by  all  the  muezzins  of  the  Moslem  world, — 
whether  from  the  barbaric  brick  structures  which  rise 
above  "The  Tunis  of  the  Desert/'  or  from  the  fairy 
minarets  of  the  exquisite  mosque  at  Agra, — are  the  words 
first  sung  by  the  mighty  voice  of  Bilal. 

Bilal  was  the  son  of  an  Abyssinian  slave-girl,  and 
himself  began  life  as  a  slave.  The  first  preaching 
of  Mahomet  had  deep  effect  upon  the  slaves  of 
Mecca,  and  Bilal  was  perhaps  the  earliest  of  these  to 
become  a  convert.  Even  under  the  tortures  of  the 
persecutors,  he  could  not  be  made  to  apostatize — al- 
ways he  would  answer,  "AJiad!  Ahad:"  "One,  one 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  207 

only  God!"  Abu  Bekr,  the  bosom  friend  of  the 
great  Prophet,  observing  Bilal,  bought  him,  and  set 
him  free.  Then  Bilal  became  the  devoted  servant 
of  Mahomet;  and,  in  fulfillment  of  a  dream,  he  was 
made  the  First  Muezzin  to  sound  the  Adzan,  the 
Call  to  Prayer. 

God  is  Great! 
God  is  Great! 

I  bear  witness  there  is  no  other  God  but  God! 
I  bear  witness  that  Mahomet  is  the  Prophet  of  God! 
Come  unto  Prayer! 
Come  unto  Salvation! 

God  is  Great! 
There  is  no  other  God  but  God ! 


After  the  death  of  Mahomet,  Bilal  ceased  to  sing  the 
Adzan: — the  voice  that  had  summoned  the  Prophet  of  God 
to  the  house  of  prayer  ought  not,  he  piously  fancied,  to 
be  heard  after  the  departure  of  his  master.  Yet,  in  his 
Syrian  home,  how  often  must  he  have  prayed  to  chant  the 
words  as  he  first  chanted  them  from  the  starlit  housetop 
in  the  Holy  City,  and  how  often  compelled  to  deny  the 
petitions  of  those  who  revered  him  as  a  saint  and  would 
perhaps  have  sacrificed  all  their  goods  to  have  heard  him 
but  once  lift  up  his  voice  in  musical  prayer!  .  .  .  But 
when  Omar  visited  Damascus  the  chiefs  of  the  people  be- 
sought him  that,  as  Commander  of  the  Faithful,  he  should 
ask  Bilal  to  sing  the  Call  in  honor  of  the  event;  and  the 
old  man  consented  to  do  so  for  the  last  time 

To  hear  Bilal  must  have  seemed  to  many  as  sacred  a 
privilege  as  to  have  heard  the  voice  of  the  Prophet  him- 


208  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

self, — the  proudest  episode  of  a  lifetime, — the  one  incident 
of  all  others  to  be  related  in  long  after-years  to  children 
and  to  grandchildren.  Some  there  may  have  been  whom 
the  occasion  inspired  with  feelings  no  loftier  than  curi- 
osity; but  the  large  majority  of  those  who  thronged  to 
listen  in  silent  expectancy  for  the  Allah-hu-akbar!  must 
have  experienced  emotions  too  deep  to  be  ever  forgotten. 
The  records  of  the  event,  at  least,  fully  justify  this  be- 
lief;— for  when,  after  moments  of  tremulous  waiting,  the 
grand  voice  of  the  aged  African  rolled  out  amid  the  hush, 
— with  the  old  beloved  words, — the  old  familiar  tones,  still 
deep  and  clean, — Omar  and  all  those  about  him  wept 
aloud,  and  tears  streamed  down  every  warrior-face,  and 
the  last  long  notes  of  the  chant  were  lost  in  a  tempest  of 
sobbing. 

STEAY  LEAVES  FROM  STRANGE  LITERATURE1  (1)  is 
the  second  book.  It  was  written  also  during  the 
period  in  New  Orleans,  many  of  the  stories  first 
appearing  in  the  Times-Democrat,  and  the  little 
volume  is  dedicated  to  its  editor — Mr.  Page  M. 
Baker. 

These  tales,  as  Hearn  tells  us  in  his  Preface, 
are  "reconstructions  of  what  impressed  me  as  most 
fantastically  beautiful  in  the  most  exotic  literature 
which  I  was  able  to  obtain."  In  a  letter  he  writes, 
"The  language  of  'Stray  Leaves'  is  all  my  own,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Italic  texts  and  a  few  pages 
translated  from  the  'Kalewala.' ' 

The  tapestry  he  is  weaving  is  of  the  same  crimson 

Copyright,  1884,  by  James  R.  Osgood  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  209 

threads  as  that  of  the  earlier  tales,  but  the  colors  of 
sunset  are  softening  to  the  gentler  hues  of  the  after- 
glow, and  interwoven  sometimes  are  strands  of  pure 
moonlight. 

We  read  of  the  great  Book  of  Thoth  which  con- 
tains a  formula  whosoever  could  recite  might  never 
know  death,  and  we  learn  how  the  cunning  magician 
NbferkepHtah  obtained  the  book,  which  caused  the 
wrath  of  the  gods  to  fall  upon  him;  later,  how  Satni, 
of  whom  "there  was  not  in  all  Egypt  so  wise  a 
scribe,"  yearned  for  the  book,  and  took  it  from  the 
tomb  of  Noferkephtah,  and  of  the  magic  wrought 
and  the  penance  done. 

There  is  the  exquisite  tale  of  the  Fountain  Maiden, 
whom  Aki  caught  in  his  great  fish-net,  and  whom  he 
grew  to  love  more  than  his  own  life. 

The  story  lingers  of  the  sea-bird  which  fell  into  the 
hunter's  hand,  and  when  he  looked  more  closely  he 
found  it  had  become  transformed  into  a  beautiful 
girl,  "slender  .  .  .  like  a  young  moon,"  and  pity 
rose  in  the  hunter's  heart,  and  then  love.  One  day, 
when,  their  children  had  become  strong  and  swift, 
and  while  they  were  all. hunting  together,  the  Bird- 
Wife  called  to  the  little  ones  to  gather  feathers :  then 
she  covered  their  arms  and  her  own  shoulders  with 
the  feathers,  and  far  away  they  flew. 

Passing  onward,  we  read  of  Tilottama  and  that  by 
reason  of  her  beauty  "the  great  gods  once  became 


210  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

multiple-faced  and  myriad-eyed";  and  that  this 
beauty  brought  punishment  to  the  wicked  Sounda 
and  Oupasounda. 

There  is  Bakawali  for  "whose  history  of  love, 
human  and  superhuman,  a  parallel  may  not  be 
found."  For  her  great  love  of  the  mortal  youth 
Taj-ulmuluk  each  night  she  sacrificed  herself  to  the 
fiercest  purification  of  fire.  And  then  to  appease  the 
gods,  she  suffered  herself  to  be  turned  for  ten  long 
years  into  marble  from  her  waist  to  her  feet.  Her 
lover  ministered  to  her  and  watched  by  her  side 
through  the  terrible  years  until  she  was  reincarnated 
for  him. 

Then  we  see  the  statue  of  Natalika  who  avenged 
the  death  of  her  people. 

And  who  shall  answer  the  riddle  of  the  Corpse 
Demon?  And  which  one  may  not  profit  by  the  wis- 
dom of  the  youth  who  knew  nothing  of  science? 
Perhaps  our  hearts  stir  with  a  soft  regret  for  the 
atonement  of  Pundari.  And  so  we  wander  through 
a  maze  of  color  and  of  magic,  tarrying  to  listen  to 
the  voice  of  Kalewala,  for — 

As  he  sang  the  fair  Sun  paused  in  her  course  to  hear 
him;  the  golden  Moon  stopped  in  her  path  to  listen;  the 
awful  billows  of  the  sea  stood  still;  the  icy  rivers  that 
devour  the  pines,  that  swallow  up  the  firs,  ceased  to  rage ; 
the  mighty  cataracts  hung  motionless  above  their  abysses; 
the  waves  of  Juortana  lifted  high  their  heads  to  hear. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  211 

"Slender  she  was  as  the  tulip  upon  its  stalk,  and 
in  walking  her  feet  seemed  kisses  pressed  upon  the 
ground.  But  hadst  thou  beheld  her  face  unveiled, 
and  the  whiteness  of  her  teeth  between  her  brown 
lips  when  she  smiled !"  Alas,  she  was  a  good  Chris- 
tian maiden  and  he  a  good  Mussulman,  and  so  in  this 
Legend  of  Love  each  loyal  heart  dies  pronouncing 
the  faith  of  the  other,  lest  they  should  not  meet  at 
the  Day  of  Judgment. 

As  we  draw  near  the  last  figures  on  the  tapestry, 
we  find  those  two  tender  pictures  of  which  Hearn 
himself  speaks :  "Your  preference  for  Boutimar 
pleases  me:  Boutimar  was  my  pet.  There  is  a  lit- 
tle Jewish  legend  in  the  collection — Esther — some- 
what resembling  it  in  pathos. "  These  stories  afford 
a  glimpse  into  that  gentle  heart,  which  was  later  to 
respond  to  the  exquisite  faiths  and  loyalties  of  the 
Japanese. 

Now  the  Creator  sent  unto  Solomon  a  cup  which 
contained  some  of  the  waters  of  youth  and  of  life 
without  end.  And  Solomon  was  asked:  "Wilt  thou 
drink  hereof  and  live  divinely  immortal  through 
ages  everlasting,  or  wilt  thou  rather  remain  within 
the  prison  of  humanity?"  And  Solomon  dreamed 
upon  these  words;  and  he  assembled  in  council  a 
representative  of  all  those  over  whom  he  held 
dominion.  Then  Solomon  asked  Boutimar,  the  wild 
dove;  most  loving  of  all  living  creatures,  whether  he 


212  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

should  drink  of  the  magic  waters,  and  thus  learn 
the  bliss  of  earthly  immortality.  When  Boutimar, 
the  wild  dove,  learned  that  the  cup  held  only  enough 
water  for  one  person,  he  made  answer  in  the  lan- 
guage of  birds : — 

1 '  0  prophet  of  God !  how  couldst  thou  desire  to  be  living 
alone,  when  each  of  thy  friends  and  of  thy  counsellor^ 
and  of  thy  children  and  of  thy  servants  and  of  all  who 
loved  thee  were  counted  with  the  dead?  For  all  of  these 
must  surely  drink  the  bitter  waters  of  death,  though  thou 
shouldst  drink  the  Water  of  Life.  Wherefore  desire  ever- 
lasting youth,  when  the  face  of  the  world  itself  shall  be 
wrinkled  with  age,  and  the  eyes  of  the  stars  shall  be 
closed  by  the  black  fingers  of  Azrael?  When  the  love 
thou  hast  sung  of  shall  have  passed  away  like  a  smoke 
of  frankincense,  when  the  dust  of  the  heart  that  beat 
against  thine  own  shall  have  long  been  scattered  by  the 
four  winds  of  heaven,  when  the  eyes  that  looked  for  thy 
coming  shall  have  become  a  memory,  when  the  voices 
grateful  to  thine  ear  shall  have  been  eternally  stilled, 
when  thy  life  shall  be  one  oasis  in  a  universal  waste  of 
death,  and  thine  eternal  existence  but  a  recognition  of 
eternal  absence, — wilt  thou  indeed  care  to  live,  though  the 
wild  dove  perish  when  its  mate  cometh  not*?" 

And  Solomon,  without  reply,  silently  put  out  his  arm 
and  gave  back  the  cup But  upon  the  prophet- 
king's  rich  beard,  besprinkled  with  powder  of  gold,  there 
appeared  another  glitter  as  of  clear  dew, — the  diamond 
dew  of  the  heart,  which  is  tears. 

Esther,  whose  comeliness  surpassed  even  that  of 
Sarah,  and  her  rich  husband  had  lived  together  ten 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  213 

years,  but  there  was  no  happiness  in  the  soul  of  the 
good  man,  for  "the  sound  of  a  child's  voice  had 
never  made  sunshine  within  his  heart."  So  Esther 
and  her  husband  sorrowed  bitterly.  And  they 
brought  the  burden  of  their  grief  to  Rabbi  Simon 
ben  Yochai,  and  when  they 'had  told  him,  a  silence 
as  of  the  Shechinah  came  upon  the  three,  only  the 
eyes  of  the  Rabbi  seemed  to  smile.  And  it  was 
agreed  that  the  twain  should  part ;  thus  the  Israelite 
could  be  known  as  a  father  in  Israel. 

A  feast  then  was  laid  at  the  house,  and  before  all 
the  guests  her  husband  spoke  lovingly  to  Esther,  and 
in  token  of  his  affection,  and  his  grief  bade  her  to 
take  from  the  house  "whatever  thou  desirest,  whether 
it  be  gold  or  jewels  beyond  price."  And  the  wine 
was  passed,  and  the  people  made  merry,  and  finally 
a  deep  sleep  fell  upon  them  all.  Then  Esther  gave 
command  that  her  husband  sleeping  should  be  car- 
ried to  her  father's  house.  In  the  morning  her  hus- 
band awakened,  and  confused  he  cried  out,  "Woman, 
what  hast  thou  done?" 

Then,  sweeter  than  the  voice  of  doves  among  the  fig- 
trees,  came  the  voice  of  Esther:  " Didst  thou  not  bid  me, 
husband,  that  I  should  choose  and  take  away  from  thy 
house  whatsoever  I  most  desired?  And  I  have  chosen 
thee,  and  have  brought  thee  hither,  to  my  father's  home 
.  .  .  loving  thee  more  than  all  else  in  the  world.  Wilt 
thou  drive  me  from  thee  now?"  And  he  could  not  see 
her  face  for  tears  of  love;  yet  he  heard  her  voice  speak- 


214  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


ing  on, — speaking  the  golden  words  of  Ruth,  which  are  so 
old  yet  so  young  to  the  hearts  of  all  that  love :  l '  Whither- 
soever thou  shalt  go,  I  will  also  go;  and  whithersoever 
thou  shalt  dwell,  I  also  will  dwell.  And  the  Angel  of 
Death  only  may  part  us;  for  thou  art  all  in  all  to 
me."  .... 

And  in  the  golden  sunlight  at  the  doorway  suddenly 
stood,  like  a  statue  of  Babylonian  silver,  the  grand  gray 
figure  of  Rabbi  Simon  ben  Yochai,  lifting  his  hands  in 
benediction. 

Schmcth  Israel!— the  Lord  our  God,  who  is  One,  bless 
ye  with  everlasting  benediction!  May  your  hearts  be 
welded  by  love,  as  gold  with  gold  by  the  cunning  of  gold- 
smiths !  May  the  Lord,  who  coupleth  and  setteth  thee 
single  in  families,  watch  over  ye!  The  Lord  make  this 
valiant  woman  even  as  Rachel  and  as  Lia,  who  built  up 
the  house  of  Israel!  And  ye  shall  behold  your  children 
and  your  children's  children  in  the  House  of  the  Lord!" 

Even  so  the  Lord  blessed  them;  and  Esther  became  as 
the  fruitful  vine,  and  they  saw  their  children's  children 
in  Israel.  Forasmuch  as  it  is  written:  "He  will  regard 
the  prayer  of  the  destitue. ' ' 

GOMBO  ZnEBES1  (2)  followed  in  the  New  Orleans 
period.  It  is  a  compilation  of  352  proverbs  selected 
from  six  dialects.  According  to  the  indexes,  there 
are  6  in  the  Creole  of  French  Guyana;  28  in  the 
Creole  of  Hayti;  51  in  the  Creole  of  New  Orleans, 
Louisiana;  101  in  the  Creole  of  Martinique;  110  in 
the  Creole  of  Mauritius;  52  in  the  Creole  of  Trini- 
dad. Most  of  the  proverbs  are  similar  to  our  own, 

Copyright,  1885,  by  Will  H.  Coleman. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  215 

but  are  translated  into  the  simple  homely  language 
of  the  Creole,  reflecting  its  mode  of  thought.  The 
same  proverb  often  appears  in  the  different  dialects. 
Although  a  proverb  is  of  European  origin,  "the  char- 
acter of  Creole  folk-lore  is  very  different  from  Euro- 
pean folk-lore  in  the  matter  of  superstition."  Many 
proverbs  are  direct  from  the  African.  Those  in  the 
Creole  of  Hayti  are  generally  rough  and  coarse. 
The  most  popular  subjects  are,  pot  or  kettle,  rain, 
serpent  or  snake,  of  which  there  are  six  of  each; 
devil,  eggs,  belly,  horse,  mothers,  tail,  of  these  there 
are  seven  of  each;  chicken,  children,  ox  have  eight 
of  each;  cat  has  nine;  goat  has  eleven;  talking  has 
sixteen;  monkey  has  seventeen;  fine  clothes  has  only 
four,  idleness  has  five,  and  marriage  has  six. 

Hearn  speaks  of  this  book  as  a  Dictionary  of 
Proverbs.  He  made  an  extensive  study  of  the  sub- 
ject and  in  later  researches  found  it  most  helpful. 
"I  have,"  he  says,  "quite  a  Creole  library  embrac- 
ing the  Creole  dialects  of  both  hemispheres." 

Following  are  a  selection  of  the  proverbs  chosen 
from  the  different  dialects: — 

No.  23.  Bel  tignon  pas  fait  bel  negresse.  (Le  beau 
tignon  ne  fait  pas  la  belle  negresse.)  "It  isn't  the  fine 
head-dress  that  makes  the  fine  negress. "  (Louisiana.) 

Tignon  or  tiyon,  the  true  Creole  word,  "is  the  famously 
picturesque  handkerchief  which  in  old  days  all  slave- 
women  twisted  about  their  heads." 

No.  44.     £7a  qui  boude  manse  boudin.     (Celui  qui 


216  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

boude  mange  du  boudin.)  "He  who  sulks  eats  his  own 
belly."  That  is  to  say,  spites  himself.  The  pun  is  un- 
translatable. (Mauritius.) 

Boudin  in  French  signifies  a  pudding,  in  Creole  it  also 
signifies  the  belly.  Thus  there  is  a  double  pun  in  the 
patois. 

No.  256.  Quand  diabe  alle  lamesse  li  caciette  so 
laquee.  (Quand  le  diable  va  a  la  mcsse,  il  cache  sa 
queue.)  ' l  When  the  Devil  goes  to  mass  he  hides  his  tail. ' ' 
(Mauritius.) 

No.  352.  Zozo  paillenqui  crie  la-haut,  coudevent  vim. 
(Le  paille-en-cul  crie  la-haut,  le  coup  de  vent  vient.) 
"When  the  tropic-bird  screams  overhead,  a  storm- wind  is 
coming. ' '  (Mauritius.) 

No.  267.  Quand  milatt  tini  yon  vie  chouvral  yo  dit 
negress  pas  manman  yo.  (Quand  les  muldtres  ont  un 
vieux  cheval  Us  disent  que  les  negresses  ne  sont  pas 
leur  meres.)  "As  soon  as  a  mulatto  is  able  to  own  an 
old  horse,  he  will  tell  you  that  his  mother  wasn  't  a  nigger. ' ' 
(Martinique.) 

No.  324.  Toutt  milett  ni  grand  zaureilles.  (Tout  les 
mulets  ont  des  grandes  oreilles.)  "All  mules  have  big 
ears."  Equivalent  to  our  proverb:  "Birds  of  a  feather 
flock  together."  (Martinique.) 

No.  291.  Si  coulev  oule  viv,  li  pas  pronminee  grand- 
chemin.  (Si  la  couleuvre  veut  vivre,  elle  ne  se  promene 
pas  dans  le  grand  chemin.)  "If  the  snake  cares  to  live, 
it  doesn't  journey  upon  the  high-road."  (Guyana.) 

No.  292.  Si  couleve  pas  te  fonte,  femmes  sc  pouend 
li  fair  ribans  jipes.  (Si  la  couleuvre  n'etait  pas 
effrontee  les  femmes  la  prendraient  pour  en  faire  des 
rubans  de  jupes.)  "If  the  snake  wasn't  spunky,  women 
would  use  it  for  petticoat  strings."  (Trinidad.) 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  217 

No.  100.  Complot  plis  fort  passe  ouanga.1  (Le  corn- 
plot  est  plus  fort  que  Vouanga.)  "Conspiracy  is  stronger 
than  witchcraft."  (Hayti.) 

Simultaneously  with  the  publication  of  "Gombo 
Zhebes,"  Hearn  contributed  a  series  of  articles2  to 
Harpers  Weekly.  (221-227,  230,  232.)  These 
papers,  which  are  commonplace  newspaper  work,  tell 
of  New  Orleans,  its  Expositions,  its  Superstitions, 
Voudooism,  and  the  Creole  Patois.  He  feels  that 
the  Creole  tongue  must  go,  but  while  there  is  still 
time,  he  hopes  that  someone  will  rescue  its  dying 
legends  and  curious  lyrics. 

*Di  moin  si  to  gagnin  homme! 

Mo  va  fe  ouanga  pouli; 
Mo  fe  li  tourne  fantdme 

Si  to  vie  mo  to  mart.     .     .     . 

"Tell  me  if  thou  hast  a  man  (a  lover)  I  will  make  a  ouanga 
for  him — I  will  change  him  into  a  ghost  if  thou  wilt  have  me 
for  thy  husband." 

This  word,  of  African  origin,  is  applied  to  all  things  con- 
nected with  the  Voudooism  of  the  negroes. 

In  the  song,  "Dipi  mo  voue,  toue  Adele"  from  which  the 
above  lines  are  taken,  the  wooer  threatens  to  get  rid  of  a  rival 
by  ouanga — to  "turn  him  into  a  ghost."  The  victims  of  Vou- 
dooism are  said  to  have  gradually  withered  away,  probably 
through  the  influence  of  secret  poison.  The  word  grigri,  also 
of  African  origin,  simply  refers  to  a  charm,  which  may  be  used 
for  an  innocent  or  innocuous  purpose.  Thus,  in  a  Louisiana 
Creole  song,  we  find  a  quadroon  mother  promising  her  daughter 
a  charm  to  prevent  the  white  lover  from  forsaking  her : 

"Pow  tchombd  li  na  fe  grigri"  "We  shall  make  a  grigri 
to  keep  him." 

2Copyright,  1884,  1885,  1886,  by  Harper  and  Brothers. 


218  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

The  unedited  Creole  literature  comprises  songs,  satires 
in  rhymes,  proverbs,  fairy-tales — almost  everything  com- 
monly included  under  the  term  folk-lore.  The  lyrical  por- 
tion of  it  is  opulent  in  oddities,  in  melancholy  beauties. 

There  are  few  of  the  younger  generation  of  Creoles 
who  do  not  converse  in  the  French  and  English  lan- 
guages. Creole  is  the  speech  of  motherhood  and 
"there  is  a  strange  naive  sorrow  in  their  burdens  as 
of  children  sobbing  for  lonesomeness  in  the  night." 

There  is  an  interesting  account  of  Jean  Montanet, 
"Voudoo  John" — The  Last  of  the  Youdoos.  He  was 
said  to  be  a  son  of  a  prince  of  Senegal.  From  a  ship's 
cook  he  rose  to  own  large  estates.  While  he  was  a 
cotton-roller,  it  was  noticed  that  he  seemed  to  have 
some  peculiar  occult  influence  over  the  negroes  under 
him.  Voudoo  John  had  the  mysterious  obi  power. 
Soon  realizing  his  power,  he  commenced  to  tell  for- 
tunes, and  thousands  and  thousands  of  people,  white 
and  black,  flocked  to  him.  Then  he  bought  a  house 
and  began,  as  well  to  practice  Creole  medicine.  He 
could  give  receipts  for  everything  and  anything,  and 
many  a  veiled  lady  stopped  at  his  door. 

Once  Jean  received  a  fee  of  $50  for  a  potion.  ' '  It  was 
water/'  he  said  to  a  Creole  confidant,  "with  some  com- 
mon herbs  boiled  in  it.  I  hurt  nobody  but  if  folks  want 
to  give  me  fifty  dollars,  I  take  the  fifty  dollars  every 
time!" 

It  is  said  that  Jean  became  worth  at  least  $50,000. 
He  had  his  horses  and  carriages,  his  fifteen  wives, 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  219 


whom  he  considered,  one  and  all,  legitimate  spouses. 
He  was  charitable  too.  But  he  did  not  know  what  to 
do  with  his  money.  Gradually,  in  one  way  or 
another,  it  was  stolen  from  him,  until  at  the  last,  with 
nothing  left  but  his  African  shells,  his  elephant's 
tusk,  and  the  sewing-machine-  upon  which  he  used  to 
tell  fortunes  even  in  his  days  of  riches,  he  had  to 
seek  hospitality  of  his  children. 

Hearn  devotes  several  columns  to  Voudooism, 
telling  of  its  witchcrafts  and  charms  and  fetiches 
which  work  for  evil,  and  also  of  the  superstitions  re- 
garding the  common  occurrences  of  daily  life. 

In  a  paper  on  Mexican  feather-work  at  the  New 
Orleans  Exposition,  there  is  this  paragraph  which 
presages  his  later  descriptions : — 

As  I  write,  the  memory  of  a  Mexican  landscape  scene  in 
feather-work  is  especially  vivid — a  vast  expanse  of  opulent 
wheat-fields,  whereof  the  blond  immensity  brightens  or 
deepens  its  tint  with  the  tremor  of  summer  winds;  dis- 
tance makes  violet  the  hills;  a  steel-bright  river  serpen- 
tines through  the  plain,  reflecting  the  feminine  grace  of 
palms  tossing  their  plumes  against  an  azure  sky.  I  re- 
member also  a  vision  of  marshes — infinite  stretches  of 
reed-grown  ooze,  shuddering  in  gusts  of  sea-wind,  and  pal- 
ing away  into  bluish  vagueness  as  through  a  miasmatic 
haze. 

In  conjunction  with  these  articles,  Hearn  pub- 
lished in  Harper's  Bazaar  (228-229)  two  papers  on 


220  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


the  Curiosities  to  be  found  at  the  New  Orleans  Ex- 
position. 

SOME  CHINESE  GnosTS1  (3)  was  the  next  book  of 
the  New  Orleans  period.  The  first  publisher  to 
whom  it  was  submitted  did  not  accept  it,  but  Roberts 
Brothers  finally  brought  it  out.  "There  are  only  six 
little  stories/7  writes  Hearn,  "but  each  of  them 
cost  months  of  hard  work  and  study,  and  represents 
a  much  higher  attempt  than  anything  in  the  'Stray 
Leaves.' '  The  book  is  dedicated  to  his  friend  Mr. 
Krehbiel,  and  the  Dedication,  which  is  given  in  the 
Bibliography,  is  as  unique  as  the  tales  themselves. 

In  the  Preface  Hearn  says  that  while  preparing 
these  legends  he  sought  for  "weird  beauty.'7  The  era 
of  fierce  passions  and  horror  is  waning  and  in  these 
six  perfect  tales  there  is  a  new-found  restraint,  a 
firmer  handling  of  the  brush  in  more  normal  colors. 

One  of  the  earliest  reviews  of  his  work  remarks : 

"In  his  treatment  of  the  legend  lore  of  the  Celes- 
tial Empire,  Mr.  Hearn  has,  if  possible,  been  even 
more  delicate  and  charming  than  in  the  stories  which 
go  to  make  the  previous  volume,  so  much  so,  indeed, 
that  one  is  persuaded  to  full  belief  in  the  beauty  and 
witchery  of  the  almond-eyed  heroines  of  his  pages." 
(322.) 

The  opening  story  is  of  the  beautiful  Ko-Ngai, 
daughter  of  Kouan-Yu,  whose  divine  loyalty  to  her 

Copyright,  1887,  by  Roberts  Brothers. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  221 

father  never  faltered  even  at  a  hideous  death.  He 
was  a  great  bell-maker,  and  the  Mandarin  ordered 
that  he  should  make  a  bell  of  such  size  that  it  would 
be  heard  ifor  one  hundred  li,  and  further  that  the 
bell  "should  be  strengthened  with  brass,  and  deep- 
ened with  gold,  and  sweetened  with  silver."  But  the 
metals  refused  to  mingle.  Again  the  bell  was  cast,  but 
the  result  was  even  worse,  and  the  Son  of  Heaven  was 
very  angry;  and  this  word  was  sent  to  Kouan-Yu  :— 

"If  them  fail  a  third  time  in  fulfilling  our  command, 
thy  head  shall  be  severed  from  thy  neck." 

When  the  lovely  KcKN"gai  heard  this,  she  sold  her 
jewels,  and  paid  a  great  price  to  an  astrologer,  and 
it  was  told  to  her : — 

Gold  and  brass  will  never  meet  in  wedlock,  silver  and 
iron  never  will  embrace,  until  the  flesh  of  a  maiden  be 
melted  in  the  crucible;  until  the  blood  of  a  virgin  be 
mingled  with  the  metals  in  their  fusion. 

Ko-!Ngai  told  no  one  what  she  had  heard.  The 
awful  hour  for  the  heroic  effort  of  the  final  casting 
arrived. 

All  the  workmen  wrought  their  tasks  in  silence;  there 
was  no  sound  heard  but  the  muttering  of  the  fires.  And 
the  muttering  deepened  into  a  roar  of  typhoons  approach- 
ing, and  the  blood-red  lake  of  metal  slowly  brightened 
like  the  vermilion  of  a  sunrise,  and  the  vermilion  was 
transmuted  into  a  radiant  glow  of  gold,  and  the  gold 
whitened  blindingly,  like  the  silver  face  of  a  full  moon. 
Then  the  workers  ceased  to  feed  the  raving  flame,  and  all 


222  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

fixed  their  eyes  upon  the  eyes  of  Kouan-Yu;  and  Kouan- 
Yu  prepared  to  give  the  signal  to  cast. 

But  ere  ever  he  lifted  his  finger,  a  cry  caused  him  to 
turn  his  head ;  and  all  heard  the  voice  of  Ko-Ngai  sound- 
ing sharply  sweet  as  a  bird 's  song  above  the  great  thunder 
of  the  fires,— "For  thy  sake,  0  my  Father!"  And  even 
as  she  cried,  she  leaped  into  the  white  flood  of  metal ;  and 
the  lava  of  the  furnace  roared  to  receive  her,  and  spat- 
tered monstrous  flakes  of  flame  to  the  roof,  and  burst 
over  the  verge  of  the  earthen  crater,  and  cast  up  a  whir- 
ling fountain  of  many-colored  fires,  and  subsided  quak- 
ingly,  with  lightnings  and  with  thunders  and  with 
mutterings. 

Of  the  lovely  Ko-Ngai  no  trace  remained  save  a 
little  shoe,  which  was  left  in  the  hand  of  the  faithful 
serving-woman  who  had  striven  to  catch  her  as  she 
leaped  into  the  flame. 

And  ever  does  the  bell,  whose  tones  are  deeper 
and  mellower  and  mightier  than  the  tones  of  any 
other  bell,  utter  the  name  of  Ko-lSTgai;  and  ever  be- 
tween the  mighty  strokes  there  is  a  low  moaning 
heard,  a  sobbing  of  "Hiai!"  and  that  they  say  is 
Ko-Ngai  crying  for  her  little  shoe. 

The  next  tale  tells  of  Ming-Y  and  how  it  was  that 
he  did  not  heed  the  counsel  of  the  words  of  Lao- 
Tseu,  and  so  it  befell  that  he  was  loved  by  the  beau- 
tiful Sie-Thao,  whose  tomb  had  many  years  ago 
crumbled  to  ruins. 

The  Legend  of  Tchi-Niu  is  the  queen  flower  of  the 
nosegay  of  six.  Tong's  father  died,  and  as  they  were 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  223 

very  poor,  the  only  way  that  Tong  could  obtain 
money  to  pay  for  the  funeral  expenses  was  to  sell 
himself  as  a  slave.  The  years  passed,  and  he  worked 
without  rest  or  pay,  but  never  a  complaint  did  he 
utter.  At  length  the  fever  of  the  rice-fields  seized 
him,  and  he  was  left  alone  in'his  sickness,  for  there 
was  no  one  to  wait  on  him.  One  noon  he  dreamed 
that  a  beautiful  woman  bent  over  him  and  touched 
his  forehead  with  her  hand.  And  Tong  opened  his 
eyes,  and  he  saw  the  lovely  person  of  whom  he  had 
dreamed.  "I  have  come  to  restore  thy  strength  and 
to  be  thy  wife.  Arise  and  worship  with  me."  And 
reading  his  thoughts  she  said,  "I  will  provide." 

"And  together  they  worshipped  Heaven  and  Earth. 
Thus  she  became  his  wife." 

But  all  that  Tong  knew  of  his  wife  was  that  her 
name  was  T'chi.  And  the  fame  of  the  weaving  of 
Tchi  spread  far,  and  people  came  to  see  her  beautiful 
work.  One  morning  Tchi  gave  to  her  husband  a 
document.  It  was  his  freedom  that  she  had  bought. 

Later  the  silk-loom  remained  untouched  for  Tchi 
gave  birth  to  a  son.  And  the  boy  was  not  less  won- 
derful than  his  mother. 

Now  it  came  to  the  Period  of  the  Eleventh  Moon. 
Suddenly  one  night,  Tchi  led  Tong  to  the  cradle 
where  their  son  slumbered,  and  as  she  did  so  a  great 
fear  and  awe  came  over  Tong,  and  the  sweet  tender 
voice  breathed  to  him: — 


224  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"Lo!  my  beloved,  the  moment  has  come  in  which  I  must 
forsake  thee;  for  I  was  never  of  mortal  born,  and  the 
Invisible  may  incarnate  themselves  for  a  time  only.  Yet 
I  leave  with  thee  the  pledge  of  our  love, — this  fair  son, 
who  shall  ever  be  to  thee  as  faithful  and  as  fond  as  thou 
thyself  hast  been.  Know,  my  beloved,  that  I  was  sent  to 
thee  even  by  the  Master  of  Heaven,  in  reward  of  thy  filial 
piety,  and  that  I  must  now  return  to  the  glory  of  His 
house:  I  AM  THE  GODDESS  TCHI-NIU." 

Even  as  she  ceased  to  speak,  the  great  glow  faded,  and 
Tong,  reopening  his  eyes,  knew  that  she  had  passed  away 
forever, — mysteriously  as  pass  the  winds  of  heaven,  irre- 
vocably as  the  light  of  a  flame  blown  out.  Yet  all  the 
doors  were  barred,  all  the  windows  unopened.  Still  the 
child  slept,  smiling  in  his  sleep.  Outside,  the  darkness 
was  breaking;  the  sky  was  brightening  swiftly;  the  night 
was  past.  With  splendid  majesty  the  East  threw  open 
high  gates  of  gold  for  the  coming  of  the  sun;  and,  illumi- 
nated by  the  glory  of  his  coming,  the  vapors  of  morning 
wrought  themselves  into  marvelous  shapes  of  shifting 
color, — into  forms  weirdly  beautiful  as  the  silken  dreams 
woven  in  the  loom  of  Tchi-Niu. 

Another  tale  is  that  of  Mara  who  tempted  in  vain, 
for  the  Indian  pilgrim  conquered. 

And  still,  as  a  mist  of  incense,  as  a  smoke  of  universal 
sacrifice,  perpetually  ascends  to  heaven  from  all  the  lands 
of  earth  the  pleasant  vapor  TE,  created  for  the  refresh- 
ment of  mankind  by  the  power  of  a  holy  vow,  the  virtue 
of  a  pious  atonement. 

Like  unto  the  Tale  of  the  Great  Bell,  Pu,  convinced 
that  a  soul  cannot  be  divided, 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  225 

entered  the  flame,  and  yielded  up  his  ghost  in  the  em- 
brace of  the  Spirit  of  the  Furnace,  giving  his  life  for  the 
life  of  his  work, — his  soul  for  the  soul  of  his  Vase. 

And  when  the  workmen  came  upon  the  tenth  morning 
to  take  forth  the  porcelain  marvel,  even  the  bones  of  Pu 
had  ceased  to  be;  but  lo!  the  Vase  lived  as  they  looked 
upon  it:  seeming  to  be  flesh  moved  by  the  utterance  of  a 
Word,  creeping  to  the  titillation  of  a  Thought.  And 
whenever  tapped  by  the  finger,  it  uttered  a  voice  and  a 
name, — the  voice  of  its  maker,  the  name  of  its  creator: 
PU. 

This  same  year,  Hearn  contributed  to  Harper  s 
Bazaar  the  valiant  legend  of  "Rabjah's  Last  Ride" 
(234) — Rabyah  upon  whom  no  woman  had  ever 
called  in  vain,  and  who  defended  his  women  even 
after  he  was  dead.  This  tale  was  copied  in  the 
Time  s-D  emocrat. 

CmTA1  (4),  although  published  after  Hearn 
left  New  Orleans,  properly  belongs  to  that  period. 
It  first  appeared  in  much  shorter  form  in  the 
Times-Democrat  under  the  title  of  "Torn  Letters." 
This  version  met  with  many  warm  friends,  and  the 
author  was  urged  to  enlarge  it.  He  did  so,  and 
Harpers  accepted  the  story,  publishing  it  first  as  a 
serial  in  their  magazine.  With  this  book  came 
Hearn's  first  recognition,  and  because  of  its  success, 
he  was  given  a  commission  by  Harpers  for  further 
studies  in  the  tropics,  which  eventuated  in  the 
volume,  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West  Indies." 

Copyright,  1889,  by  Harper  and  Brothers. 


226  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"Chita"  is  the  first  glimpse  of  what  Mr.  Hearn 
could  write  from  out  himself;  for  whereas,  as  always, 
the  plot  must  be  given  to  him,  the  thread  here  is  so 
frail  that  what  we  admire  and  remember  is  the  fabric 
itself  which  only  Hearn  could  have  woven.  In 
"Chita"  he  recreates  elemental  nature.  In  "Karma" 
he  becomes  the  conscience  of  a  human  being.  Then, 
for  the  first  time  he  realizes  the  spiritual  forces  which 
are  stronger  than  life  or  death,  and  without  which 
no  beauty  exists. 

A  criticism  of  "Chita"  at  the  time  of  its  publica- 
tion says: — 

"By  right  of  this  single  but  profoundly  remarka- 
ble book,  Mr.  Hearn  may  lay  good  claim  to  the  title 
of  the  American  Victor  Hugo  ....  so  living  a 
book  has  scarcely  been  given  to  our  generation." 
(342.) 

Concerning  the  story,  Hearn  himself  writes  as 
follows : — 

' '  Chita ' '  was  founded  on  the  fact  of  a  child  saved  from 
the  Lost  Island  disaster  by  some  Louisiana  fisher-folk,  and 
brought  up  by  them.  Years  after  a  Creole  hunter  recog- 
nized her,  and  reported  her  whereabouts  to  relatives. 
These,  who  were  rich,  determined  to  bring  her  up  as 
young  ladies  are  brought  up  in  the  South,  and  had  her 
sent  to  a  convent.  But  she  had  lived  the  free  healthy  life 
of  the  coast,  and  could  not  bear  the  convent;  she  ran 
away  from  it,  married  a  fisherman,  and  lives  somewhere 
down  there  now, — the  mother  of  multitudinous  children. 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn  227 

This  slight  structure  of  plot  gave  Hearn  the  oppor- 
tunity to  paint  a  marvellous  picture.  Hundreds  of 
quotations  could  be  given.  He  is  delighted  with  the 
rich  glory  of  the  tropics,  and  by  his  power  of  word 
imagery  he  so  reproduces  it  that  with  him  we  too  can 
see  and  feel  it.  In  this  glowing  Nature  the  poisoned 
beauty  of  the  Orient  is  forgotten.  Take  this  descrip- 
tion : — 

The  charm  of  a  single  summer  day  on  these  island 
shores  is  something  impossible  to  express,  never  to  be  for- 
gotten. Rarely,  in  the  paler  zones,  do  earth  and  heaven 
take  such  luminosity:  those  will  best  understand  me  who 
have  seen  the  splendor  of  a  West  Indian  sky.  And  yet 
there  is  a  tenderness  of  tint,  a  caress  of  color,  in  these 
Gulf -days  which  is  not  of  the  Antilles, — a  spirituality,  as 
of  eternal  tropical  spring.  It  must  have  been  to  even 
such  a  sky  that  Xenophanes  lifted  up  his  eyes  of  old  when 
he  vowed  the  Infinite  Blue  was  God ; — it  was  indeed  under 
such  a  sky  that  De  Soto  named  the  vastest  and  grandest 
of  Southern  havens  Espiritu  Santo, — the  Bay  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  There  is  a  something  unutterable  in  this  bright 
Gulf-air  that  compels  awe, — something  vital,  something 
holy,  something  pantheistic  and  reverentially  the  mind 
asks  itself  if  what  the  eye  beholds  is  not  the  nv£ujj.a  in- 
deed, the  Infinite  Breath,  the  Divine  Ghost,  the  Great  Blue 
Soul  of  the  Unknown.  All,  all  is  blue  in  the  calm, — save 
the  low  land  under  your  feet,  which  you  almost  forget, 
since  it  seems  only  as  a  tiny  green  flake  afloat  in  the  liquid 
eternity  of  day.  Then  slowly,  caressingly,  irresistibly,  the 
witchery  of  the  Infinite  grows  upon  you :  out  of  Time  and 
Space  you  begin  to  dream  with  open  eyes, — to  drift  into 


228  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

delicious  oblivion  of  facts, — to  forget  the  past,  the  pres- 
ent, the  substantial, — to  comprehend  nothing  but  the 
existence  of  that  infinite  Blue  Ghost  as  something  into 
which  you  would  wish  to  melt  utterly  away  forever. 

So  it  is  told  that  into  this  perfect  peace  one  August 
day  in  1856,  a  scarlet  sun  sank  in  a  green  sky,  and 
a  moonless  night  came. 

Then  the  Wind  grew  weird.  It  ceased  being  a  breath; 
it  became  a  Voice  moaning  across  the  world  hooting, — 
uttering  nightmare  sounds, — Whoo! — whoo! — whoo! — and 
with  each  stupendous  owl-cry  the  mooing  of  the  waters 
seemed  to  deepen,  more  and  more  abysmally,  through  all 
the  hours  of  darkness. 

Morning  dawned  with  great  rain:  the  steamer 
Star  was  due  that  day.  No  one  dared  to  think  of  it. 
"Great  God !"  some  one  shrieked, — "She  is  coming !" 

On  she  came,  swaying,  rocking,  plunging, — with  a  great 
whiteness  wrapping  her  about  like  a  cloud,  and  moving 
with  her  moving, — a  tempest-whirl  of  spray ; — ghost-white 
and  like  a  ghost  she  came,  for  her  smoke-stacks  exhaled 
no  visible  smoke — the  wind  devoured  it. 

And  still  the  storm  grew  fiercer.  On  shore  the 
guests  at  the  hotel  danced  with  a  feverish  reckless 
gayety. 

Again  the  Star  reeled,  and  shuddered,  and  turned,  and 
began  to  drag  away  from  the  great  building  and  its 
lights, — away  from  the  voluptuous  thunder  of  the  grand 
piano, — even  at  that  moment  outpouring  the  great  joy  of 
Weber's  melody  orchestrated  by  Berlioz:  V Invitation  a 
la  Valse, — with  its  marvellous  musical  swing. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  229 

—"Waltzing!"  cried  the  captain.  "God  help  them!— 
God  help  us  all  now!  .  .  .  The  Wind  waltzes  to-night, 
with  the  Sea  for  his  partner. "  .  .  .  . 

0  the  stupendous  Valse-Tourbillon !  0  the  mighty 
Dancer!  One-two — three!  From  northeast  to  east,  from 
east  to  southeast,  from  southeast  to  south:  then  from  the 
south  he  came,  whirling  the  Sea- in  his  arms 

And  so  the  hurricane  passed,  and  the  day  reveals 
utter  wreck  and  desolation.  "There  is  plunder  for 
all — birds  and  men." 

At  a  fishing  village  on  the  coast  on  this  same  night 
of  the  storm  Carmen,  the  good  wife  of  Feliu, 
dreamed — above  the  terrors  of  the  tempest  which, 
shattered  her  sleep — once  again  the  dream  that  kept 
returning  of  her  little  Concha,  her  first-born  who 
slept  far  away  in  the  old  churchyard  at  Barcelona. 
And  this  night  she  dreamed  that  her  waxen  Virgin 
came  and  placed  in  her  arms  the  little  brown  child 
with  the  Indian  face,  and  the  face  became  that  of  her 
dead  Conchita. 

And  Carmen  wished  to  thank  the  Virgin  for  that  price- 
less bliss,  and  lifted  up  her  eyes;  but  the  sickness  of 
ghostly  fear  returned  upon  her  when  she  looked ;  for  now 
the  Mother  seemed  as  a  woman  long  dead,  and  the  smile 
was  the  smile  of  fleshlessness,  and  the  places  of  the  eyes 

were  voids  and  darknesses And  the  sea  sent  up 

so  vast  a  roar  that  the  dwelling  rocked. 

********** 

Feliu  and  his  men  find  the  tide  heavy  with  hu- 
man dead  and  the  sea  filled  with  wreckage.  Through 


230  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

this  floatage  Feliu  detects  a  stir  of  life  ...  he 
swims  to  rescue  a  little  baby  fast  in  the  clutch  of  her 
dead  mother. 

To  Carmen  it  is  the  meaning  of  her  dream.  The 
child  has  been  sent  by  the  Virgin.  The  tale  leads 
on  through  the  growing  life  of  Chita.  Finally 
one  day  Dr.  La  Brierre,  whose  wife  and  child  had 
been  lost  in  the  famous  storm,  is  summoned  to 
Viosca's  Point  to  the  deathbed  of  his  father's  old 
friend,  who  is  dying  of  the  fever.  It  is  Feliu  who 
brings  him.  But  before  they  can  reach  the  Point  the 
man  has  already  died.  The  Doctor  remains  at  Feliu's 
fishing  smack.  He  feels  the  sickness  of  the  fever 
coming  over  him.  Then  he  sees  Chita.  .  .  .  Hers 
is  the  face  of  his  dead  Adele.  Through  the  fury  of 
the  fever,  which  has  now  seized  him,  the  past  is  min- 
gled with  the  present.  He  relives  the  agony  of 
that  death-storm,  relives  all  the  horror  of  that 
scene,  when  all  that  he  held  dear  was  swept  away 
until  his  own  soul  passes  out  into  the  night. 

The  description  of  Dr.  La  Brierre  in  the  throes  of 
the  fever  is  terrible.  It  is  so  realistic  that  one  shud- 
ders. 

Two  YEARS  IN  THE  FRENCH  WEST  INDIES*  (6)  was 
the  piece  de  resistance  of  the  sojourn  in  the  tropics. 
Some  of  the  papers  appeared  first  in  Harper's  Maga- 
zine. They  are  marvellous  color-pictures  of  the 

Copyright,  1890,  by  Harper  and  Brothers. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  231 

country,  its  people,  its  life,  its  customs,  with  many 
of  the  picturesque  legends  and  the  quaintnesses  that 
creep  into  the  heart. 

"There  is  not  a  writer  who  could  have  so  steeped 
himself  in  this  languorous  Creole  life  and  then  tell  so 
well  about  it.  Trollope  and  Froude  give  you  the 
hard,  gritty  facts,  and  Lafcadio  Hearn  the  sentiment 
and  poetry  of  this  beautiful  island."  (387.) 

More  and  more  is  Hearn  realizing  the  neces- 
sity of  finding  new  color.  "I  hope  to  be  able  to  take 
a  trip  to  New  Mexico  in  the  summer  just  to  obtain 
literary  material,  sun-paint,  tropical  color,  etc."  It 
is  always  the  intense  that  his  fancy  craves,  and  in- 
deed must  have  in  order  to  work.  "There  are  tropi- 
cal lilies  which  are  venomous,  but  they  are  more 
beautiful  than  the  frail  and  icy  white  lilies  of  the 
North."  "Whenever  I  receive  a  new  and  strong  im- 
pression, even  in  a  dream,  I  write  it  down,  and  after- 
wards develop  it  at  leisure.  .  .  .  There  are  impres- 
sions of  blue  light  and  gold  and  green,  correlated  to 
old  Spanish  legend,  which  can  be  found  only  south  of 
this  line."  "I  will  write  you  a  little  while  I  am  gone, 
— if  I  can  find  a  little  strange  bit  of  tropical  color  to 
spread  on  the  paper, — like  the  fine  jewel-dust  of  scin- 
tillant  moth-wings."  "Next  week  I  go  away  to  hunt 
up  some  tropical  or  semi-tropical  impressions." 

He  is  bewitched  by  St.  Pierre — "I  love  this  quaint, 
whimsical,  wonderfully  colored  little  town."  On 


232  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

opening  the  present  volume  we  at  once  feel  how  thor- 
oughly sympathetic  this  whole  Nature  is  to  him,  how 
ravished  his  senses  are  with  all  that  she  portrays. 

From  Pier  49,  East  River,  New  York,  we  travel 
with  Hearn  through  days  of  color  and  beauty  to 
the  glorious  Caribbean  Sea,  where  we  sail  on  to 
Roseau  and  St.  Pierre.  Here  the  color  is  becoming 
so  intense  that  the  eyes  are  blinded. 

The  luminosities  of  tropic  foliage  could  only  be  imitated 
in  fire.  He  who  desires  to  paint  a  West  Indian  forest, — 
a  West  Indian  landscape, — must  take  his  view  from  some 
great  height,  through  which  the  colors  come  to  his  eye 
softened  and  subdued  by  distance, — toned  with  blues  or 
purples  by  the  astonishing  atmosphere. 

....  It  is  sunset  as  I  write  these  lines,  and  there 
are  witchcrafts  of  color.  Looking  down  the  narrow,  steep 
street  opening  to  the  bay,  I  see  the  motionless  silhouette 
of  the  steamer  on  a  perfectly  green  sea, — under  a  lilac 
sky, — against  a  prodigious  orange  light. 

Over  her  memoried  paths  we  wander  with  Jose- 
phine, and  then  we  pause  before  the  lovely  statue 
which  seems  a  living  presence. 

She  is  standing  just  in  the  centre  of  the  Savane,  robed 
in  the  fashion  of  the  First  Empire,  with  gracious  arms 
and  shoulders  bare :  one  hand  leans  upon  a  medallion  bear- 
ing the  eagle  profile  of  Napoleon Seven  tall 

palms  stand  in  a  circle  around  her,  lifting  their  comely 
heads  into  the  blue  glory  of  the  tropic  day.  Within  their 
enchanted  circle  you  feel  that  you  tread  holy  ground, — 
the  sacred  soil  of  artist  and  poet; — here  the  recollections 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  233 

of  memoir-writers  vanish  away;  the  gossip  of  history  is 
hushed  for  you;  you  no  longer  care  to  know  how  rumor 
has  it  that  she  spoke  or  smiled  or  wept :  only  the  bewitch- 
ment of  her  lives  under  the  thin,  soft,  swaying  shadows 
of  those  feminine  palms..     ....     Over  violet  space  of 

summer  sea,  through  the  vast  splendor  of  azure  light,  she 
is  looking  back  to  the  place  of  iier  birth,  back  to  beauti- 
ful drowsy  Trois-Islets, — and  always  with  the  same  half- 
dreaming,  half-plaintive  smile, — unutterably  touching. 


"Under  a  sky  always  deepening  in  beauty"  we 
steam  on  to  the  level,  burning,  coral  coast  of  Barba- 
cloes.  Then  on  past  to  Demerara. 

We  pass  through  all  the  quaint  beautiful  old  towns 
and  islands.  We  see  their  wonders  of  sky  and  sea 
and  flowers.  We  see  their  people  and  all  that  great 
race  of  the  mixed  blood. 

With  dear  old  Jean-Marie  we  wait  for  the  return 
of  Les  Porteuses,  and  we  hear  his  call : — 

"Coument  ou  ye,  chef  coument  ou  kallef"    . 
(How  art  thou,  dear? — how  goes  it  with  theef) 

And  they  mostly  make  answer,  "Toutt  douce,  che, — et 
ou?"  (All  sweetly,  dear, — and  thou?)  But  some,  over 
weary,  cry  to  him,  "Ah!  de  charge  main  vite,  che!  moin 
lasse,  lasse!"  (Unload  me  quickly,  dear;  for  I  am  very, 
very  weary.)  Then  he  takes  off  their  burdens,  and  fetches 
bread  for  them,  and  says  foolish  little  things  to  make  them 
laugh.  And  they  are  pleased  and  laugh,  just  like  chil- 
dren, as  they  sit  right  down  on  the  road  there  to  munch 
their  dry  bread. 


234  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Again  we  follow  on :  this  time  to  La  Grande  Anse, 
where  we  see  the  powerful  surf-swimmers.  With 
the  population  we  turn  out  to  witness  the  procession 
of  young  girls  to  be  confirmed;  we  see  the  dances 
and  games;  we  hear  the  chants,  and  the  strange 
music  on  strange  instruments. 

At  St.  Pierre  once  more  we  listen  to  the  history  of 
Pere  Labat  who  in  twelve  years  made  his  order  the 
richest  and  most  powerful  in  the  West  Indies. 

"Eh,  Pere  Labat! — what  changes  there  have  been  since 

thy  day! And  all  that  ephemeral  man  has  had 

power  to  change  has  been  changed, — ideas,  morals,  beliefs, 
the  whole  social  fabric.  But  the  eternal  summer  remains, 
— and  the  Hesperian  magnificence  of  azure  sky  and  violet 
sea, — and  the  jewel-colors  of  the  perpetual  hills ;  the  same 
tepid  winds  that  rippled  thy  cane-fields  two  hundred  years 
ago  still  blow  over  Sainte-Marie ;  the  same  purple  shadows 
lengthen  and  dwindle  and  turn  with  the  wheeling  of  the 
sun.  God's  witchery  still  fills  this  land;  and  the  heart  of 
the  stranger  is  even  yet  snared  by  the  beauty  of  it;  and 
the  dreams  of  him  that  forsakes  it  will  surely  be  haunted 
— even  as  were  thine  own,  Pere  Labat — by  memories  of  its 
Eden-summer:  the  sudden  leap  of  the  light  over  a  thou- 
sand peaks  in  the  glory  of  a  tropic  dawn, — the  perfumed 
peace  of  enormous  azure  noons, — and  shapes  of  palm, 
wind-rocked  in  the  burning  of  colossal  sunsets, — and  the 
silent  flickering  of  the  great  fire-flies,  through  the  luke- 
warm darkness,  when  mothers  call  their  children  home. 
.  .  .  .  'Mi  fanal  Pe  Labatt! — mi  Pe  Labatt  ka  vini 
pouend  ou!'" 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  235 

Then  we  see  the  lights  of  the  shrines  that  will  pro- 
tect us  from  the  Zombi  and  the  Moun-Mo,  and  all 
the  terrible  beings  who  are  filled  with  witchcraft; 
and  we  listen  to  the  tale  of  that  Zombi  who  likes  to 
take  the  shape  of  a  lissome  young  negress. 

By  this  time  it  is  Carnival-  Week  with  its  dances 
and  games  and  maskers.  But  a  little  later  we  are 
shuddering  at  the  horrible  pestilence  Verette  that  has 
seized  the  city.  A  gleam  of  the  old  love  of  horror 
is  caught  in  the  following  quotation : 

She  was  the  prettiest,  assuredly,  among  the  pretty  shop- 
girls of  the  Grande  Rue, — a  rare  type  of  sang-melee.  So 
oddly  pleasing,  the  young  face,  that  once  seen,  you  could 
never  again  dissociate  the  recollection  of  it  from  the 
memory  of  the  street.  But  one  who  saw  it  last  night  be- 
fore they  poured  quick-lime  upon  it  could  discern  no  feat- 
ures,— only  a  dark  brown  mass,  like  a  fungus,  too  fright- 
ful to  think  about. 

At  the  beautiful  Savane  du  Fort  our  eyes  and 
hearts  are  gladdened  by  the  quaint  sight  of  the 
Blanchisseuses  with  their  snowy  linen  spread  out  for 
miles  along  the  river's  bank.  Their  laughter  echoes 
in  our  ears,  and  we  try  to  catch  the  words  of  their 
little  songs. 

One  warm  and  starry,  and  to  us  unforgetable, 
September  morning  we  make  the  ascent  of  Mt.  Pelee 
by  the  way  of  Morne  St.  Martin,  and  on  our  way 
we  come  to  know  the  country  that  lies  all  around. 


236  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Let  me  quote  our  sensation  as  we  reach  the  sum- 
mit:— 

At  the  beginning,  while  gazing  south,  east,  west,  to  the 
rim  of  the  world,  all  laughed,  shouted,  interchanged  the 
quick  delight  of  new  impressions :  every  face  was  radiant. 
....  Now  all  look  serious;  none  speaks Domi- 
nating all  I  think  is  the  consciousness  of  the  awful 
antiquity  of  what  one  is  looking  upon, — such  a  sensation, 
perhaps,  as  of  old  found  utterance  in  that  tremendous 
question  of  the  Book  of  Job : — "Wast  thou  brought  forth 
before  the  hills f" 

And  the  blue  multitudes  of  the  peaks,  the  perpetual 
congregation  of  the  mornes,  seem  to  chorus  in  the  vast 
resplendence, — telling  of  Nature 's  eternal  youth,  and  the 
passionless  permanence  of  that  about  us  and  beyond  us 
and  beneath, — until  something  like  the  fullness  of  a  grief 
begins  to  weigh  at  the  heart.  .  .  .  For  all  this  aston- 
ishment of  beauty,  all  this  majesty  of  light  and  form  and 
color,  will  surely  endure, — marvellous  as  now, — after  we 
shall  have  lain  down  to  sleep  where  no  dreams  come,  and 
may  never  arise  from  the  dust  of  our  rest  to  look  upon  it. 

Another  day  we  are  laughing  at  the  little  ti 
canotie  who  in  the  queerest  tiny  boats  surround  a 
steamer  as  soon  as  she  drops  anchor.  These  are  the 
boys  who  dive  for  coins.  A  sad  tale  is  told  of  Maxi- 
milien  and  Strephane.  Again  our  hearts  are  moved  by 
the  pathos  and  the  tragedy  of  La  Fille  de  Couleur ;  and 
in  this  chapter  we  find  that  characteristic  description : 

I  refer  to  the  celebrated  attire  of  the  pet  slaves  and 
belles  affranchies  of  the  old  colonial  days.  A  full  cos- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  237 

tume, — including  violet  or  crimson  "petticoat"  of  silk  or 
satin;  chemise  with  half -sleeves,  and  much  embroidery 
and  lace;  "trembling-pins"  of  gold  (zepingue  tremblant) 
to  attach  the  folds  of  the  brilliant  Madras  turban;  the 
great  necklace  of  three  or  four  strings  of  gold  beads 
bigger  than  peas  (collier-choux] ;  the  ear-rings,  immense 
but  light  as  egg-shells  (zanneaux-a-clous  or  zanneaux- 
chenilles) ;  the  bracelets  (portes-bonheur) ;  the  studs 
(boutons-d-clous) ;  the  brooches,  not  only  for  the  turban, 
but  for  the  chemise,  below  the  folds  of  the  showy  silken 
foulard  or  shoulder-scarf, — would  sometimes  represent 
over  five  thousand  francs'  expenditure.  This  gorgeous  at- 
tire is  becoming  less  visible  every  year:  it  is  now  rarely 
worn  except  on  very  solemn  occasions, — weddings,  bap- 
tisms, first  communions,  confirmations.  The  da  (nurse) 
or  "porteuse-de-bapteme"  who  bears  the  baby  to  church, 
holds  it  at  the  baptismal  font,  and  afterwards  carries  it 
from  house  to  house  in  order  that  all  the  friends  of  the 
family  may  kiss  it,  is  thus  attired:  but  nowadays,  unless 
she  be  a  professional  (for  there  are  professional  das, 
hired  only  for  such  occasions),  she  usually  borrows  the 
jewellery.  If  tall,  young,  graceful,  with  a  rich  gold  tone 
of  skin,  the  effect  of  her  costume  is  dazzling  as  that  of  a 
Byzantine  Virgin.  I  saw  one  young  da  who,  thus  garbed, 
scarcely  seemed  of  the  earth  and  earthly; — there  was  an 
Oriental  something  in  her  appearance  difficult  to  describe, 
— something  that  made  you  think  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
going  to  visit  Solomon.  She  had  brought  a  merchant's 
baby,  just  christened,  to  receive  the  caresses  of  the  family 
at  whose  house  I  was  visiting;  and  when  it  came  to  my 
turn  to  kiss  it,  I  confess  I  could  not  notice  the  child :  I  saw 
only  the  beautiful  dark  face,  coiffed  with  orange  and  pur- 
ple, bending  over  it,  in  an  illumination  of  antique  gold. 


238  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

What  a  da!  .  .  .  She  represented  really  the  type  of 
that  belle  affranchie  of  other  days,  against  whose  fascina- 
tion special  sumptuary  laws  were  made:  romantically  she 
imaged  for  me  the  supernatural  godmothers  and  Cinder- 
ellas  of  the  Creole  fairy-tales. 

Still  we  have  much  to  learn  about  the  little  crea- 
tures in  the  shapes  of  ants  and  scorpions  and  lizards. 
They  form  no  small  part  of  the  population  of  Martin- 
ique. And  still  more  about  the  fruits  and  the  vege- 
tables do  we  learn  from  good  Cyrillia,  Ma  Bonne. 
One  longs  to  have  a  housekeeper  as  loving  and  child- 
like and  solicitous.  We  leave  her  gazing  with  love 
unutterable  at  the  new  photograph  of  her  daughter, 
and  wondering  the  while  why  they  do  not  make  a  por- 
trait talk  so  that  she  can  talk  to  her  beautiful 
daughter. 

And  day  by  day  the  artlessness  of  this  exotic  humanity 
touches  you  more; — day  by  day  this  savage,  somnolent, 
splendid  Nature — delighting  in  furious  color — bewitches 
you  more.  Already  the  anticipated  necessity  of  having  to 
leave  it  all  some  day — the  far-seen  pain  of  bidding  it  fare- 
well weighs  upon  you,  even  in  dreams. 

But  before  we  go,  we  must  learn  how  Nature 
must  treat  those  who  are  not  born  under  her  suns. 

Then  at  last  reluctantly  we  board  the  Guadeloupe, 
and  with  Mademoiselle  Violet-Eyes,  who  is  leaving 
her  country,  perhaps  for  a  very  long  time,  to  become 
a  governess  in  New  York,  we  realize  that  nowhere 
on  this  Dearth  may  there  be  brighter  skies. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  239 

Farewell,  fair  city, — sun-kissed  city, — many-fountained 
city! — dear  yellow-glimmering  streets, — white  pavements 
learned  by  heart, — and  faces  ever  looked  for, — and  voices 
ever  loved!  Farewell,  white  towers  with  your  golden- 
throated  bells ! — farewell,  green  steeps,  bathed  in  the  light 
of  summer  everlasting! — craters  with  your  coronets  of 
forests ! — bright  mountain  paths  'upwinding  'neath  pomp 
of  fern  and  angelin  and  feathery  bamboo! — and  gracious 
palms  that  drowse  above  the  dead !  Farewell,  soft-shadow- 
ing majesty  of  valleys  unfolding  to  the  sun, — green  golden 
cane-fields  ripening  to  the  sea!  .... 

Dominica,  Guadeloupe,  Martinique,  Pelee — so 
they  vanish  behind  us.  Shall  not  we  too  become 
Les  Revenants? 

YouMA1  (5)  was  written  in  Martinique,  and  also 
belongs  to  the  New  Orleans  period.  "I  think  you 
will  like  it  better  than  'Chita.'  It  is  more  mature 
and  exotic  by  far," — so  Hearn  wrote  of  the  story  in 
one  of  his  letters.  Later  on,  when  living  in  Japan, 
he  wrote: — 

It  gave  me  no  small  pleasure  to  find  that  you  like 
' '  Youma : ' '  you  will  not  like  it  less  knowing  that  the  story 
is  substantially  true.  You  can  see  the  ruins  of  the  old 
house  in  the  Quartier  du  Fort  if  you  ever  visit  Saint- 
Pierre,  and  perhaps  meet  my  old  friend  Arnoux,  a  sur- 
vivor of  the  time.  The  girl  really  died  under  the  heroic 
conditions  described — refusing  the  help  of  the  blacks  and 
the  ladder.  Of  course  I  may  have  idealized  her,  but  not 
her  act.  The  incident  of  the  serpent  occurred  also;  but 

Copyright,  1890,  by  Harper  and  Brothers. 


240  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

the  heroine  was  a  different  person, — a  plantation  girl, 
celebrated  by  the  historian  Rufz  de  Lavison.  I  wrote  the 
story  under  wretched  circumstances  in  Martinique,  near 
the  scenes  described,  and  under  the  cross  with  the  black 
Christ. 

An  English  notice  says: — 

"It  is  an  admirable  little  tale,  full  of  local  charac- 
teristics with  curious  fragments  of  Creole  French 
from  Martinique,  and  abundance  of  wide  human  sym- 
pathy. It  deserves  reprinting  for  English  readers 
more  than  three-fourths  of  the  fiction  which  is  wont 
to  cross  the  Atlantic  under  similar  circumstances." 
(294.) 

"Youma"  is  the  tale  of  the  exquisite  devotion  and 
loyalty  of  a  da.  (A  da  is  the  foster-mother  and  nurse 
of  a  Creole  child.)  At  the  death  of  Aimee,  Youma's 
playmate  and  rich,  foster-sister,  little  Mayotte,  her 
child,  becomes  Youma's  charge.  An  intimate  de- 
scription is  given  us  of  the  Creole  life  of  Mayotte 
and  Youma.  The  love  of  this  da  is  very  beautiful. 
Once  with  an  extraordinary  heroism  Youma  saves 
Mayotte  from  a  serpent  which  has  slipped  into 
their  room.  With  a  still  greater  heroism  she  re- 
fuses to  run  away  with  Gabriel,  who  has  opened  the 
world  to  her, — Gabriel  who  has  brought  her  love,  and 
whom  she  can  marry  in  no  other  way.  No,  above 
the  pleadings  of  her  lover,  comes  the  voice  of  her 
dying  mistress,  begging,  with  such  trust, — 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  241 

"Youma,  0  Youma!  you  will  love  my  child? — Youma, 
you  will  never  leave  her,  whatever  happens,  while  she 
is  little  ?  promise,  dear  Youma ! ' ' 

And  she  had promised.     .     .     . 

Then  comes  the  final  test  of  Youma's  strength  of 
devotion.  There  is  an  outbreak  among  the  blacks, 
who  have  become  inflamed  by  the  dreams  of  coming 
freedom.  The  Desrivieres  with  many  other  families 
are  forced  to  flee  for  refuge  in  safer  quarters.  Under 
one  roof  all  these  people  gather.  Youma  is  urged 
to  leave  and  save  herself.  But  she  will  not  forsake 
Mayotte  or  her  master.  The  infuriated  blacks 
surround  the  house,  and  horror  follows.  Presently 
the  house  is  set  on  fire.  Youma,  with  Mayotte  in  her 
arms,  appears  at  an  upper  window.  Gabriel,  "daring 
the  hell  about  him  for  her  sake,"  puts  up  a  ladder. 
Youma  hands  him  Mayotte.  "Can  you  save  her?" 
she  asks. 

"Gabriel  could  only  shake  his  head; — the  street  sent 
up  so  frightful  a  cry.  .  .  . 

"Non !  —  non !  —  non !  —  pa  le  yche-beke ! — janmain 
yche-beke!" 

"Then  you  cannot  save  me!"  cried  Youma,  clasping 
the  child  to  her  bosom, — "janmain!  janmain,  mon  ami." 

"Youma,  in  the  name  of  God.     .     .  " 

' f  In  the  name  of  God,  you  ask  me  to  be  a  coward !  .  . 
.  .  Are  you  vile,  Gabriel? — are  you  base?  .  .  .  Save 
myself  and  leave  the  child  to  burn  ?  .  .  .  Go ! " 

"Leave  the  beke's  yche! — leave  it! — leave  it,  girl!*' 
shouted  a  hundred  voices. 


242  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"Moin!"  cried  Youma,  retreating  beyond  the  reach  of 
Gabriel's  hand, — "moin  I  .  .  .  Never  shall  I  leave  it, 
never!  I  shall  go  to  God  with  it." 

"Burn  with  it  then!"  howled  the  negroes  .  .  .  . 
* '  down  with  that  ladder !  down  with  it,  down  with  it ! " 

-  The  ladder  catches  fire  and  burns.  The  walls 
quiver,  and  there  are  shrieks  from  the  back  of  the 
house.  Unmoved,  with  a  perfect  calm,  Youma  re- 
mains at  the  window.  "There  is  now  neither  hate 
nor  fear  on  her  fine  face."  Softly  she  whispers  to 
Mayotte  and  caresses  her  with  an  infinite  tenderness. 
Never  to  Gabriel  had  she  seemed  so  beautiful. 

Another  minute — and  he  saw  her  no  more.     The  figure 
and  the  light  vanished  together,  as  beams  and  floor  and 
roof  all  quaked   down  at  once  into   darkness.     .     .     . 
Only  the  skeleton  of  stone  remained, — black-smoking  to 
the  stars. 

A  stillness  follows.  The  murderers  are  appalled 
by  their  crime. 

Then,  from  below,  the  flames  wrestled  out  again, — 
crimsoning  the  smoke  whirls,  the  naked  masonry,  the 
wreck  of  timbers.  They  wriggled  upward,  lengthening, 
lapping  together, — lifted  themselves  erect, — grew  taller, 
fiercer, — twined  into  one  huge  fluid  spire  of  tongues  that 
flapped  and  shivered  high  into  the  night.  .  .  . 

The  yellowing  light  swelled, — expanded  from  promon- 
tory to  promontory, — palpitated  over  the  harbor, — climbed 
the  broken  slopes  of  the  dead  volcano  leagues  through  the 
gloom.  The  wooded  mornes  towered  about  the  city  in 
weird  illumination, — seeming  loftier  than  by  day, — blanch- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  243 

ing  and  shadowing  alternately  with  the  soaring  and  sink- 
ing of  the  fire; — and  at  each  huge  pulsing  of  the  glow, 
the  white  cross  of  their  central  summit  stood  revealed, 
with  the  strange  passion  of  its  black  Christ. 

.  .  .  And  at  the  same  hour,  from  the  other  side  of 
the  world, — a  ship  was  running  before  the  sun,  bearing 
the  Republican  gift  of  liberty  an*d  promise  of  universal 
suffrage  to  the  slaves  of  Martinique. 

There  are  two  little  bits  of  description  which 
are  so  characteristic  that  I  quote  them : — 

Then  she  became  aware  of  a  face  .  .  .  lighted  by 
a  light  that  came  from  nowhere, — that  was  only  a  memory 
of  some  long-dead  morning.  And  through  the  dimness 
round  about  it  a  soft  blue  radiance  grew, — the  ghost  of  a 
day. 

Sunset  yellowed  the  sky, — filled  the  horizon  with  flare 
of  gold; — the  sea  changed  its  blue  to  lilac; — the  mornes 
brightened  their  vivid  green  to  a  tone  so  luminous  that 
they  seemed  turning  phosphorescent.  Rapidly  the  glow 
crimsoned, — shadows  purpled;  and  night  spread  swiftly 
from  the  east, — black-violet  and  full  of  stars. 

KARMA1  (242)  was  written  during  the  Philadel- 
phia period,  but  was  not  published  in  Lippincott's 
Magazine  until  after  Hearn  had  sailed  for  Japan. 
The  story  is  concentrated,  with  its  every  word  a  shaft 
of  light,  and  it  seems  a  wrong  to  attempt  to  epitomize 
it.  Except  in  its  entirety  no  adequate  conception 
can  be  formed  of  this  marvellous  revelation  of  the 

Copyright,  1889,  by  Lafcadio  Hearn;  and,  copyright,  1890, 
by  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company. 


244  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

anguish  that  a  human  soul  may  suffer;  nor  of  the 
artistic  power  with  which  Hearn  has  developed  and 
perfected  his  study.  Many  quotations  could  be 
gleaned  from  his  subsequent  books  which  reflect  the 
inspiration  of  "Karma." 

Despite  her  unusual  intellect,  the  heroine  had  a 
child-like  simplicity  and  frankness  which  invited  her 
lover's  confidence,  but  he  had  never  told  her  his  ad- 
miration, for  a  dormant  power  beneath  her  girlish- 
ness  made  a  compliment  seem  a  rudeness.  He  was 
often  alone  with  her,  which  is  helpful  to  lovers,  but 
her  charm  always  confused  him,  and  his  embarrass- 
ment only  deepened.  One  day  she  archly  asked  him 
to  tell  her  about  it. 

Is  there  one  who  does  not  know  that  moment  when 
the  woman  beloved  becomes  the  ideal,  and  the  lover 
feels  his  utter  unworthiness  ?  Yet,  if  she  is  one  of 
those  rare  souls,  the  illusion  however  divine  is  less 
perfect  than  is  her  worth.  Do  you  know  what  she 
truly  is — how  she  signifies  "the  whole  history  of 
love  striving  against  hate,  aspiration  against  pain, 
truth  against  ignorance,  sympathy  against  pitiless- 
ness  ?  She, — the  soul  of  her !  is  the  ripened  passion- 
flower of  the  triumph.  All  the  heroisms,  the  martyr- 
doms, the  immolations  of  self, — all  strong  soarings 
of  will  through  fire  and  blood  to  God  since  humanity 
began, — conspired  to  kindle  the  flame  of  her  higher 
life." 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  245 

And  then  you  question  yourself  with  a  thousand 
questions,  and  then  there  are  as  many  more  of  your 
duty  to  her,  to  the  future,  and  to  the  Supreme 
Father. 

She  was  not  surprised  when  he  told  her  his  wish, 
but  she  was  not  confident  that  he  really  loved  her, 
nor  whether  she  should  permit  herself  to  like  him. 
Finally  she  bade  him  go  home  and  "as  soon  as  you 
feel  able  to  do  it  properly, — write  out  for  me  a  short 
history  of  your  life; — just  write  down  everything 
you  feel  that  you  would  not  like  me  to  know.  Write 
it, — and  send  it  .  .  .  And  then  I  shall  tell 

you  whether  I  will  marry  you." 

How  easy  the  task  seemed,  and  his  whole  being  was 
joyous;  but  the  lightness  lasted  for  only  a  moment, 
and  gradually  all  that  her  command  meant  crept  over 

him "Everything  you  feel  you  would 

not  like  me  to  know."  Surely  she  had  no  realization 
of  what  she  had  asked.  Did  she  imagine  that  men 
were  good  like  women — how  cruel  to  hurt  her. 

Then  for  a  period  he  was  uplifted  with  the  desire 
to  meet  her  truthfulness,  but  his  courage  failed  again 
after  he  had  written  down  the  record  of  his  childhood 
and  youth.  It  was  no  slight  task  to  make  this  con- 
fession of  his  sins.  And  how  pale  and  trivial  they 
had  seemed  before.  Was  it  possible  that  he  had  never 
before  rightly  looked  at  them?  Yet  why  should  he 
so  falter?  Surely  she  meant  to  pardon  him.  He 


246  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

must  put  everything  down  truthfully,  and  then  re- 
color  the  whole  for  her  gaze.  But  his  face  grew  hot 
at  the  thought  of  certain  passages. 

Hour  after  hour  he  sat  at  his  desk  until  it  was 
past  midnight,  but  no  skill  could  soften  the  stony 
facts.  Finally  he  lay  down  to  rest :  his  fevered  brain 
tried  to  find  excuses  for  his  faults.  He  could  for- 
give himself  everything  ....  except — ah,  how 
unutterably  wicked  he  had  been  there.  No,  he  could 
not  tell  her  that:  instead  he  must  lose  her  forever. 
And  in  losing  her  he  would  lose  all  the  higher  self 
which  she  had  awakened.  To  lose  her — when  he  of 
all  men  had  found  his  ideal. 

"Everything  you  feel  you  would  not  like  me  to 
know/'  Perhaps  when  she  had  put  this  ban  upon 
him,  she  suspected  that  there  were  incidents  in  his 
life  which  he  dared  not  tell  her.  Could  he  not  deceive 
her?  No,  he  might  write  a  lie,  but  he  could  never 
meet  her  fine  sweet  eyes  with  a  lie.  What  was  he 
to  do?  And  why  had  he  always  been  so  humble  be- 
fore that  slight  girl  ?  "Assuredly  those  fine  gray 
eyes  were  never  lowered  before  living  gaze:  she 
seemed  as  one  who  might  look  God  in  the  face.'7 

Slowly  his  senses  became  more  confused,  and  a 
darkness  came,  and  a  light  in  the  darkness  that  shone 
on  her ;  and  he  saw  her  bathed  in  a  soft  radiance, 
that  seemed  of  some  substance  like  ivory.  And  he 
knew  that  she  was  robing  for  her  bridal  with  him. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  247 

He  was  at  her  side :  all  around  them  was  a  gentle 
whispering  of  many  friends,  who  were  dead.  Would 
they  smile  thus — if  they  knew? 

Then  there  arose  something  within  him,  and  he 
knew  that  he  must  tell  her  all.  He  commenced  to 
speak,  and  she  became  transfigured,  and  smiled  at 
him  with  the  tenderness  of  an  angel;  and  the  more 
he  told  the  greater  was  her  forgiveness.  And  he 
heard  the  voices  of  the  others  lauding  him  for  his 
self-sacrifice  and  his  sincerity.  Yet  as  they  praised 
a  fear  clutched  him  for  one  last  avowal  that  he 
must  make.  And  with  the  growing  of  this  doubt  all 
seemed  maliciously  to  change,  and  even  she  no  longer 
smiled.  He  then  would  have  told  her  alone,  but  even 
as  he  tried  to  hush  his  voice,  it  seemed  to  pierce  the 
quietude  "with  frightful  audibility,  like  the  sibila- 
tion  of  a  possessing  spirit."  Then  with  a  reckless 
despair  he  shouted  it  aloud,  and  everything  vanished, 
and  the  darkness  of  night  was  about  him. 

For  many  restless  days  and  nights  he  harried  him- 
self with  bitter  self-analysis;  and  day  by  day  he 
tore  up  a  certain  page ;  yet  without  that  page  his 
manuscript  was  worthless.  As  the  days  grew  into 
weeks  a  new  fear  seized  him  that  his  silence  had 
betrayed  him,  and  that  already  she  had  decided 
against  him.  In  the  face  of  this  danger  he  became 
terrified,  and  one  morning  he  feverishly  copied  the 
memorable  page,  and,  addressing  the  whole,  dropped 


248  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


it  in  the  first  letter-box,  before  he  might  change  his 
mind. 

Then  an  awful  revelation  of  his  act  overcame  him. 
Should  he  telegraph  her  to  return  the  manuscript  un- 
opened. No,  it  was  already  too  late.  What  was 
done — was  done  forever.  He  now  vaguely  realized 
what  he  feared  in  her — "a  penetrating  dynamic 
moral  power  that  he  felt  without  comprehending." 
He  tried  to  steel  himself  for  the  worst,  but  he  knew 
with  a  premonition  that  behind  his  imagined  worst 
there  were  depths  beyond  depths  of  worse. 

The  single  word  "Come"  which  he  received  two 
days  later  confirmed  his  fears.  When  he  reached 
the  door  of  her  apartment,  she  had  already  risen  to 
take  from  a  locked  drawer  an  envelope  which  he  knew 
was  his.  She  proffered  him  no  greeting,  but  asked 
in  a  cold  voice  if  he  wished  her  to  burn  the  document. 
At  his  whispered  yes,  he  met  her  eyes,  and  they 
seemed  to  strip  him  of  the  last  remnant  of  his  pride. 
"He  stood  before  her  as  before  God, — morally  naked 
as  a  soul  in  painted  dreams  of  the  Judgment  Day.77 

The  fire  caught  the  paper,  and  he  stood  near,  in 
fear  of  her  next  word,  while  she  watched  the  flame. 

At  last  she  asked  if  the  woman  was  dead.  He 
well  knew  to  what  she  referred,  and  replied  that  al- 
most five  years  had  passed  since  her  death.  To  the 
penetrating  questions  which  followed  he  answered  that 
the  child — a  boy — was  well,  and  that  his  friend  was 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  249 

still  there — in  the  same  place.  She  turned  to  him 
abruptly  and  coldly,  angered  that  he  could  have  be- 
lieved that  she  would  pardon  such  a  crime. 

He  must  have  had  some  hope,  or  he  would  not  have 
sent  the  letter.  Had  he  measured  her  by  his  own 
moral  standard  ?  Certainly  he  had  placed  her  below 
the  level  of  honest  people.  Would  he  dare  to  ask 
their  judgment  of  his  sin  ? 

Speechless,  he  writhed  under  the  scorn  of  her 
words,  and  a  knowledge  of  shame  to  which  his  former 
agony  was  as  nothing  burned  within  him.  That  in 
him  which  her  inborn  goodness  had  taught  her,  was 
now  laid  bare  to  himself. 

Again  she  spoke  after  a  silence — perhaps  he  would 
think  she  was  cruel;  but  she  was  not,  nor  was  she 
unjust,  for  transcendent  sin  that  denies  "all  the  social 
wisdom  gained  by  human  experience"  cannot  be 
pardoned,  it  can  only  be  atoned.  And  that  sin  was 
his;  and  God  would  exact  his  expiation.  And  that 
expiation  she  now  demanded  in  God's  name,  and 
as  her  right.  He  must  go  to  the  friend  whom  he 
had  wronged,  and  tell  him  the  whole  truth.  He 
must  ask  for  the  child,  and  fulfill  his  whole  duty; 
also  he  must  place  even  his  life  at  the  man's  will. 
And  she  would  rather  see  him  dead  than  believe 
that  he  could  be  a  coward  as  well  as  a  criminal.  This 
she  requested  not  as  a  favor,  but  as  her  right. 

At  her  words  he  grew  pale  as  if  to  death,  and  for 


250  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

a  moment  she  feared  that  he  might  refuse,  and  that 
she  must  despise  him.  No!  his  color  rushed  back, 
and  her  heart  leaped,  as  with  a  calm  resolve  he 
answered,  "I  will  do  it." 

"Then  go!"  she  replied,  betraying  no  gladness. 

A  year  went  by.  She  knew  that  he  had  kept  his 
promise.  He  wrote  to  her  often,  and  passionately, 
but  the  letters  were  never  answered.  Did  she  doubt 
him  still  ? — or  was  she  afraid  of  her  own  heart  ?  He 
could  not  know  the  truth,  so  he  waited  with  hopes 
and  fears,  and  the  seasons  passed.  Then  one  day 
she  was  startled  to  receive  a  letter  which  told  her 
that  he  was  passing  through  her  suburb,  and  he 
begged  only  to  be  permitted  to  see  her.  To  his  sur- 
prise the  answer  brought  the  happy  words,  "You 
may." 

From  the  shy,  beautiful  eyes  of  the  child,  whom  he 
brought,  there  seemed  to  plead  a  woman's  sorrow, 
until  her  own  soul  answered  in  forgiveness.  And  the 
boy  and  the  father  marveled  at  the  tenderness  that 
had  come  upon  her,  and  the  father  sobbed  until  her 
voice  thrilled :  that  suffering  was  strength  and  knowl- 
edge, that  alway&  he  must  suffer  for  the  evil  he  had 
wrought,  but  she  would  help  him  to  bear  the  pain, 
and  to  endure  his  atonement.  She  would  shield  his 
frailty — she  would  love  his  boy. 

THE  CRIME  OF  SYLVESTER  BONNARD  (21)  was 
translated  in  New  York,  while  Hearn  was  finish- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  251 

ing  the  proofs  of  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West 
Indies."     Of  it  he  writes: — 

As  for  the  "Sylvestre  Bonnard"  I  believe  I  told  you 
that  that  was  translated  in  about  ten  days  and  published 
in  two  weeks  from  the  time  of  beginning  it.  ...  But 
the  work  suffers  in  consequence  of  haste. 

After  his  departure  for  the  Orient,  two  articles 
on  West  Indian  Society  appeared  in  the  Cosmopoli- 
tan (243-244).  They  give  a  sympathetic  study  of 
the  sad  and  pathetic  tragedy  of  the  race  of  the 
mixed  blood.  These  articles  bear  a  similarity  to 
the  chapter  upon  and  the  references  to  this  subject, 
in  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West  Indies." 

GLIMPSES  OF  UNFAMILIAR  JAPAN1  (T)  is  the  first 
of  the  series  of  Japanese  books.  It  was  published 
after  Hearn  had  been  in  Japan  for  four  years ;  since 
1891  six  of  the  articles  had  appeared  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  (246-251).  Also  in  1890,  an  article,  "A 
Winter  Journey  to  Japan,"  was  published  in  Har- 
per's Monthly  (245).  This  was  his  initial  paper  on 
Japan. 

In  many  ways  the  present  book  on  Japan  is  his 
happiest,  for  the  charm  over  everything  is  fresh  and 
radiant.  It  is  here  that  we  learn  the  old  graceful 
customs,  the  touching  child-like  ways,  and  the  sacred 
appealing  rites  and  beliefs  that  so  endear  to  us  the 

Copyright,  1894,  by  Lafcadio  Hearn;  and  published  by 
Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company. 


252  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Japanese.  Later  we  are  to  have  studies  more  philo- 
sophical, more  erudite,  but  none  more  penetrating  in 
virtue  of  the  very  simplicity  of  subject. 

It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  writer,  bewitched 
with  the  warmth  and  color  of  the  tropics,  giving  his 
pen  an  unlicensed  flow  of  word  color  and  enthusiasm, 
in  a  few  years  could  have  matured  into  this  quiet, 
gentle  thinker  equally  absorbed  by  the  East.  One 
finds  scarcely  a  trace  of  the  Hearn  of  the  tropics: 
therein  lies  his  unique  genius;  just  so  admirably  as 
he  reflected  the  West  Indian  life,  does  he  now  reflect 
that  of  the  Japanese. 

It  is  the  old  Japan  that  Hearn  loves,  and  the 
passing  of  which  he  mourns  even  at  the  first.  In  his 
Preface,  he  says,  aMy  own  conviction,  and  that  of 
many  impartial  and  more  experienced  observers  of 
Japanese  life,  is  that  Japan  has  nothing  whatever  to 
gain  by  conversion  to  Christianity,  either  morally  or 
otherwise,  but  very  much  to  lose'."  Also  in  one  of 
his  letters  he  writes,  "I  felt,  as  never  before,  how 
utterly  dead  old  Japan  is,  and  how  ugly  New  Japan 
is  becoming."  It  is  old  Japan  that  we  find  in  the 
present  volume.  It  is  much  as  if  we  looked  into  a 
diary  of  his  first  days  in  the  Orient,  giving  his  im- 
pressions and  conclusions,  as  well  as  portraying  the 
pictures  themselves. 

One  of  the  reviews  of  the  book  contains  the 
following: — 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  253 

"If  Japan  is  all  that  he  says ;  if  the  Japanese  are 
so  compounded  of  all  the  virtues,  and  so  innocent  of 
the  ugly  failings  that  mar  our  western  civilization, 
then  the  poet's  dream  of  a  G-olden  Age  has  actually 
been  realized  in  the  remote  East.  Much  as  we 
should  like  to  believe  that  such  a  land  and  such  a 
people  actually  exist,  we  cannot  altogether  conquer 
our  doubts,  or  avoid  the  suspicion  that  the  author's 
feeling  sometimes  gets  the  better  of  his  judgment." 
(379.) 

And  another  says: — 

"In  volume  one  he  is  still  the  outside  observer, 
remote  enough  to  be  amused  with  the  little  pretty, 
bird-like  glances  of  the  Orient  towards  the  Occident, 
pleased  at  the  happy  chance  which  makes  a  blind 
shampooer's  cry  musical  as  she  taps  her  way  down 
the  street,  instead  of  giving  her  a  voice  raucous  as 
that  which  hurts  and  haunts  the  unwilling  ears  of 
wayfarers  down  Newgate  Street  and  on  Ludgate- 
Hill;  or  complimentary  to  the  cunning  fancy  which 
paints  a  branch  of  flowering  cherry  in  a  cleft  bam- 
boo on  a  square  of  faintly-colored  paper  and  calls  the 
cherry  blossom  'beauty'  and  the  bamboo  'long  life.' 
He  notices  the  shapely  feet  of  the  people:  'bare 
brown  feet  of  peasants,  or  beautiful  feet  of  children 
wearing  tiny,  tiny  geta,  or  feet  of  young  girls  in 
snowy  tali.  The  idbi,  the  white  digitated  stocking, 
gives  to  a  small  light  foot  a  mythological  aspect — 


254  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

the  white  cleft  grace  of  the  foot  of  a  fauness.' 

"A  little  further  on  the  leaven  of  witchcraft  is 
working,  and  he  cannot  write  so  airily.  It  is  not  as 
a  mere  spectator  that  he  talks  of  his  visit  to  the 
Buddhist  cemetery,  where  the  rotting  wooden  laths 
stand  huddled  about  the  graves,  and  one  tomb  bears 
an  English  name  and  a  cross  chiselled  upon  it.  Here 
he  made  acquaintance  with  the  god,  who  is  the  lover 
of  little  children,  Jizo-Sama,  about  whose  feet  are 
little  piles  of  stones  heaped  there  by  the  hands  of 
mothers  of  dead  children.  He  is  not  quite  as  much 
in  earnest  as  volume  two  will  find  him,  or  he  could 
not  call  the  gentle  god  'that  charming  divinity7;  but 
the  sight-seer  is  dying  in  him  nevertheless.  It  was 
with  a  friend's  hand  that  he  struck  the  great  bell  at 
Enoshima."  (286.) 

But  even  here  with  a  new  world  unfolding  to  his 
delighted  eyes,  it  was  color  that  Hearn  really 
wanted. 

I  am  not  easy  about  my  book,  of  which  I  now  await  the 
proofs.  It  lacks  color — it  isn  't  like  the  West  Indian  book. 
But  the  world  here  is  not  forceful:  it  is  all  washed  in 
faint  blues  and  greys  and  greens.  There  are  really  gam- 
boge, or  saffron-colored  valleys, — and  lilac  fields;  but 
these  exist  only  in  the  early  summer  and  the  rape-plant 
season,  and  ordinarily  Japan  is  chromatically  spectral. 

The  opening  chapter  is  his  first  day  in  the  Orient, 
"the  first  charm  of  Japan  is  intangible  and  volatile 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          255 

as  a  perfume."  Everything  seems  to  him  elfish  and 
diminutive.  "Cha,"  his  Kurumaya,  takes  him  past 
the  shops  where  it  appears  to  him  athat  everything 
Japanese  is  delicate,  exquisite,  admirable — even  a 
pair  of  common  wooden  chop-sticks  in  a  paper  bag 
with  a  little  drawing  upon  it."  The  money  itself  is 
a  thing  of  beauty.  But  one  must  not  dare  to  look, 
for  there  is  enchantment  in  these  wares,  and  having 
looked,  one  must  buy.  In  truth  one  wishes  to  buy 
everything,  even  to  the  whole  land,  "with  its  magical 
trees  and  luminous  atmosphere,  with  all  its  cities 
and  towns  and  temples,  and  forty  millions  of  the 
most  lovable  people." 

Before  the  steps  leading  to  a  temple  he  stops. 

I  turn  a  moment  to  look  back  through  the  glorious  light. 
Sea  and  sky  mingle  in  the  same  beautiful  pale  clear  blue. 
Below  me  the  billowing  of  bluish  roofs  reaches  to  the  verge 
of  the  unruffled  bay  on  the  right,  and  to  the  feet  of  the 
green  wooded  hills  flanking  the  city  on  two  sides.  Beyond 
that  semi-circle  of  green  hills  rises  a  lofty  range  of  ser- 
rated mountains,  indigo  silhouettes.  And  enormously  high 
above  the  line  of  them  towers  an  apparition  indescribably 
lovely, — one  solitary  snowy  cone,  so  filmly  exquisite,  so 
spiritually  white,  that  but  for  its  immemorially  familiar 
outline,  one  would  surely  deem  it  a  shape  of  cloud.  In- 
visible its  base  remains,  being  the  same  delicious  tint  as 
the  sky:  only  above  the  eternal  snow-line  its  dreamy  cone 
appears,  seeming  to  hang,  the  ghost  of  a  peak,  between  the 
luminous  land  and  the  luminous  heaven, — the  sacred  and 
matchless  mountain,  Fujiyama. 


256  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


Passing  to  the  temple  garden  he  wonders  why  the 
trees  are  so  lovely  in  Japan. 

Is  it  that  the  trees  have  been  so  long  domesticated  and 
caressed  by  man  in  this  land  of  the  gods,  that  they  have 
acquired  souls,  and  strive  to  show  their  gratitude,  like 
women  loved,  by  making  themselves  more  beautiful  for 
man's  sake?  Assuredly  they  have  mastered  men's  hearts 
by  their  loveliness,  like  beautiful  slaves.  That  is  to  say, 
Japanese  hearts.  Apparently  there  have  been  some 
foreign  tourists  of  the  brutal  class  in  this  place,  since  it 
has  been  deemed  necessary  to  set  up  inscriptions  in 
English  announcing  that  "it  is  forbidden  to  injure  the 
trees." 

Of  Hearn's  first  visit  to  a  Buddhist  temple,  I  quote 
what  one  of  his  critics  has  to  say: — 

"The  silence  of  centuries  seems  to  descend  upon 
your  soul,  you  feel  the  thrill  of  something  above  and 
beyond  the  commonplace  of  this  e\;ery-day  world, 
even  here,  amidst  the  turmoil,  the  rush,  the  struggle 
of  this  monster  city  of  the  West,  if  you  take  up  his 
'Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan/  and  turn  to  his 
description  of  his  first  visit  to  a  Buddhist  temple. 
Marvellous  is  his  power  of  imparting  the  mystery 
of  that  strange  land,  of  hidden  meanings  and  alle- 
gories, of  mists  and  legends.  The  bygone  spirit  of  the 
race,  the  very  essence  of  the  heart  of  the  people,  that 
has  lain  sleeping  in  the  temple  gloom,  in  the  shadows 
of  the  temple  shrines,  awakes  and  whispers  in  your 
ears.  You  feel  the  soft,  cushioned  matting  beneath 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  257 

your  feet,  you  smell  the  faint  odor  of  the  incense, 
you  hear  the  shuffling  of  pilgrim  feet,  the  priest 
sliding  back  screen  after  screen,  pouring  in  light 
upon  the  gilded  bronzes  and  inscriptions ;  and  you 
look  for  the  image  of  the  Deity,  of  the  presiding 
Spirit,  between  the  altar  groups  of  convoluted  can- 
delabra. And  you  see : 

Only  a  mirror,  a  round,  pale  disc  of  polished  metal, 
and  my  own  face  therein,  and  behind  this  mockery  of  me 
a  phantom  of  the  far  sea. 

Only  a  mirror!  Symbolising  what?  Illusion?  Or 
that  the  Universe  exists  for  us  solely  as  the  reflection  of 
our  own  souls'?  Or  the  old  Chinese  teaching  that  we 
must  seek  the  Buddha  only  in  our  own  hearts?  Perhaps 
some  day  I  shall  be  able  to  find  out.  (350.) 

Many  more  temples  are  visited  in  the  following 
chapter.  What  impresses  him  the  most  is  the  joyous- 
ness  of  the  people's  faith:  everything  is  bright  and 
cheerful,  and  the  air  is  filled  with  the  sound  of  chil- 
dren's voices  as  they  play  in  the  courts.  He  sees 
the  many  representations  of  Jizo,  the  loving  divinity 
who  cares  for  the  souls  of  little  children,  who  com- 
forts them,  and  saves  them  from  the  demons.  The 
face  of  Jiz5  is  like  that  of  a  beautiful  boy,  and  the 
countenance  is  made  "heavenly  by  such  a  smile  as 
only  Buddhist  art  could  have  imagined,  the  smile  of 
infinite  lovingness  and  supremest  gentleness."  There 
is  also  Kwannon,  athe  goddess  of  mercy,  the  gentle 
divinity  who  refused  the  rest  of  Nirvana  to  save  the 


258  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

souls  of  men."  Her  face  is  golden,  smiling  with 
eternal  youth  and  infinite  tenderness.  And  he  sees 
Emma  Dai-O,  the  unpitying,  tremendous  one.  He 
learns  many  things  of  many  gods  and  goddesses. 
There  is  the  temple  of  Kishibojin — the  mother  of 
Demons.  For  some  former  sin  she  was  born  a  demon 
and  devoured  her  own  children.  But  through  the 
teaching  of  Buddha  she  became  a  divine  being,  lov- 
ing and  protecting  the  little  ones,  and  Japanese 
mothers  pray  to  her,  and  wives  pray  for  beautiful 
boys.  At  her  shrine  what  impresses  the  visitor  are 
hundreds  of  tiny  dresses,  mostly  of  poor  material, 
stretched  between  tall  poles  of  bamboos.  These  are 
the  thank-offerings  of  poor  simple  country  mothers 
whose  prayers  to  her  have  been  answered. 

In  another  chapter  Hearn  writes  of  the  Festi- 
val of  the  Dead,  for  between  the  13th  and  the  15th 
day  of  July  the  dead  may  come  back  again.  Every 
small  and  great  shrine  is  made  beautiful  with  new 
mats  of  purest  rice  straw,  and  is  decorated  with 
lotus  flowers,  shikimi  (anise)  and  misohagi  (lespe- 
deza).  Food  offerings,  served  on  a  tiny  lacquered 
table — a  zen — are  placed  before  the  altars.  Every 
hour,  tea  daintily  served  in  little  cups  is  offered  to 
the  viewless  visitors.  At  night  beautiful  special 
lanterns  are  hung  at  the  entrances  of  homes.  Those 
who  have  dead  friends  visit  the  cemeteries  and  make 
offerings  there  with  prayers,  and  the  sprinkling  of 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  259 

water,  and  the  burning  of  incense.  On  the  evening 
of  the  15th  the  ghosts  of  those,  who  in  expiation  of 
faults  committed  in  a  previous  life  are  doomed  to 
hunger,  are  fed.  And  also  are  fed  the  ghosts  of 
those  who  have  no  friends. 

For  three  days  everything  is  'done  to  feast  the  dead, 
and  on  the  last  night  there  comes  the  touching  cere- 
mony of  farewell,  for  the  dead  must  then  return. 

Everything  has  been  prepared  for  them.  In  each  home 
small  boats  made  of  barley  straw  closely  woven  have  been 
freighted  with  supplies  of  choice  food,  with  tiny  lanterns, 
and  written  messages  of  faith  and  love.  Seldom  more 
than  two  feet  in  length  are  these  boats;  but  the  dead  re- 
quire little  room.  And  the  frail  craft  are  launched  on 
canal,  lake,  sea,  or  river, — each  with  a  miniature  lantern 
glowing  at  the  prow,  and  incense  burning  at  the  stern. 
And  if  the  night  be  fair,  they  voyage  long.  Down  all  the 
creeks  and  rivers  and  canals  the  phantom  fleets  go  glim- 
mering to  the  sea;  and  all  the  sea  sparkles  to  the  horizon 
with  the  lights  of  the  dead,  and  the  sea  wind  is  fragrant 
with  incense. 

But  alas!  it  is  now  forbidden  in  the  great  seaports  to 
launch  the  shoryobune,  "the  boats  of  the  blessed  ghosts." 

In  Kami-Ichi,  in  the  land  of  Hoki,  there  is  a 
glimpse  into  ancient  Japan,  for  there  the  Bon-odori, 
the  Dance  of  the  Festival  of  the  Dead,  is  still  main- 
tained. No  longer  is  it  danced  in  the  cities.  In  the 
temple  court,  in  the  shadow  of  the  tomb,  with  the 
moonlight  as  a  guide,  long  processions  of  young  girls 
dance  a  slow  ghostly  dance  while  the  vast  audience  of 


260  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

spectators  keeps  a  perfect  stillness.  A  deep  male 
chant  is  heard,  and  the  women  respond.  Many  songs 
follow,  until  the  night  is  waning.  Then  this  seem- 
ing witchcraft  ends,  and  with  merry  laughter  and 
soft  chatting  all  disperse. 

Hearn  spends  a  long  happy  day  at  Matsue  the 
chief  city  of  the  Province  of  the  Gods,  where  he 
gathers  legends  and  impressions.  Of  course  it  has 
its  temples.  The  temple  is  the  best  place  to  see  the 
life  of  the  people.  There  it  is  that  the  children  play 
all  day  long.  In  the  summer  evening,  the  young 
artisans  and  laborers  prove  their  strength  in  wrest- 
ling-matches. The  sacred  dances  are  held  there; 
and  on  holidays  it  is  also  the  place  where  toys  are 
sold. 

Often  at  night  your  attention  will  be  drawn  to  a 
large  silent  admiring  group  of  people  standing  be- 
fore some  little  booth.  They  will  be  looking  at  a 
few  vases  of  sprays  of  flowers — an  exhibition  of 
skill  in  their  arrangement. 

Returning  homeward,  there  is  seen  a  poor  woman 
scattering  some  white  papers  into  a  stream  of  water, 
and,  as  she  throws  each  one  in,  murmuring  something 
sweet  in  a  low  voice.  She  is  praying  for  her  little 
dead  child,  and  these  are  little  prayers  that  she  has 
written  to  Jizo. 

Kitzuki  is  the  most  ancient  shrine  in  Japan,  and 
it  is  the  living  centre  of  Shinto.  There  the  ancient 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  261 

faith  burns  as  brightly  as  ever  it  did  in  the  un- 
known past.  Buddhism  may  be  doomed  to  pass  away, 
but  Shinto  "unchanging  and  vitally  unchanged  re- 
mains dominant,  and  appears  but  to  gain  in  power 
and  dignity."  Many  of  the  wisest  scholars  have 
tried  to  define  Shinto. 

But  the  reality  of  Shinto  lives  not  in  books,  nor  in  rites, 
nor  in  commandments,  but  in  the  national  heart,  of  which 
it  is  the  highest  emotional  religious  expression,  immortal 
and  ever  young.  Far  underlying  all  the  surface  crop  of 
quaint  superstitions  and  artless  myths  and  fantastic 
magic,  there  thrills  a  mighty  spiritual  force,  the  whole 
soul  of  a  race  with  all  its  impulses  and  powers  and  in- 
tuitions. He  who  would  know  what  Shinto  is  must  learn 
to  know  that  mysterious  soul  in  which  the  sense  of 
beauty  and  the  power  of  art  and  the  fire  of  heroism  and 
magnetism  of  loyalty  and  the  emotion  of  faith  have  be- 
come inherent,  immanent,  unconscious,  instinctive. 

At  Kaka  is  the  Cave  of  the  Children's  Ghosts.  No 
evil  person  may  enter  the  Shin-Kukedo,  for  if  he 
does,  a  large  stone  will  detach  itself  and  fall  down 
upon  him.  Here  in  this  great  vault,  lifting  forty  feet 
above  the  water,  and  with  walls  thirty  feet  apart, 
is  a  white  rock  out  of  which  drips  a  water  apparently 
as  white  as  the  rock  itself.  This  is  the  Fountain  of 
Jizo,  which  gives  milk  to  the  souls  of  little  dead 
children. 

And  mothers  suffering  from  want  of  milk  come  hither  to 
pray  that  milk  may  be  given  unto  them;  and  their  prayer 
is  heard.  And  mothers  having  more  milk  than  their  in- 


262  Concerning  Lafcadio  Heam 

f  ants  need  come  hither  also,  and  pray  to  Jizo  that  so  much 
as  they  can  give  may  be  taken  for  the  dead  children;  and 
their  prayer  is  heard  and  their  milk  diminishes. 
At  least  thus  the  peasants  of  Izumo  say. 

In  another  cavern  are  countless  little  piles  of 
stones  and  pebbles,  which  must  have  been  made  by 
long  and  patient  labor.  It  is  the  work  of  the  dead 
children.  One  must  step  carefully,  for  the  sake  of 
these  little  ones,  for  if  any  work  is  spoiled,  they  will 
cry.  In  the  sand  are  prints  of  little  naked  feet  "the 
footprints  of  the  infant  ghosts/'  Strewn  here  and 
there  on  the  rocks  are  tiny  straw  sandals,  pilgrims' 
offerings  to  keep  the  baby  feet  from  being  bruised 
by  the  stones. 

In  the  temple  of  Hojinji  of  the  Zen  sect  at  Mionos- 
eki,  there  is  an  altar  which  bears  many  images  of 
Kwannon,  the  Goddess  of  Mercy.  Before  the  altar, 
and  hung  from  the  carven  ceiling,  is  a  bright  colored 
mass  of  embroidered  purses,  patterns  of  silk-weaving 
and  of  cotton-weaving,  also  balls  of  threads  and 
worsted  and  silk.  These  are  the  first  offerings  of 
little  girls.  As  soon  as  a  baby  girl  learns  how  to 
sew  or  knit  or  embroider,  she  brings  to  the  Maid- 
Mother  of  all  grace  and  sweetness  and  pity,  the 
first  piece  that  she  has  made  successfully. 

Even  the  infants  of  the  Japanese  kindergarten  bring 
their  first  work  here, — pretty  paper-cuttings,  scissored  out 
and  plaited  into  divers  patterns  by  their  own  tiny  flower- 
soft  hands. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          263 

Among  the  many  Notes  on  Kitzuki  which  in- 
terest, is  the  annual  festival  of  the  Divine  Scribe, 
the  Tenjin-Matsuri,  to  which  every  school-boy  sends  a 
specimen  of  his  best  writing.  The  texts  are  in 
Chinese  characters,  and  are  generally  drawn  from 
the  works  of  Confucius  or  Mencius.  And  Hearn  re- 
marks that  the  children  of  other  countries  can  never 
excel  in  the  art  of  Japanese  writing.  The  inner 
ancestral  tendencies  will  not  let  them  catch  the 
secret  of  the  stroke  with  the  brush.  It  is  the  fingers 
of  the  dead  that  move  the  brush  of  the  Japanese  boy. 

At  every  temple  festival  in  Japan  there  is  a  sale 
of  toys.  And  every  mother,  however  poor,  buys  her 
child  a  toy.  They  are  not  costly,  and  are  charming. 
Many  of  these  toys  would  seem  odd  to  a  little  Eng- 
lish child.  There  is  a  tiny  drum,  a  model  of  the 
drum  used  in  the  temples;  or  a  miniature  sambo 
table,  upon  which  offerings  are  presented  to  the  gods. 
There  is  a  bunch  of  bells  fastened  to  a  wooden  handle. 
It  resembles  a  rattle,  but  it  is  a  model  of  the  sacred 
suzu  which  the  virgin  priestess  uses  in  her  dance  be- 
fore the  gods.  Then  there  are  tiny  images  of  priests 
and  gods  and  goddesses.  There  is  little  of  grimness 
in  the  faiths  of  the  Far  East;  their  gods  smile. 
aWhy  religion  should  be  considered  too  awful  a 
subject  for  children  to  amuse  themselves  decently 
with  never  occurs  to  the  common  Japanese  mind." 

Besides  these,   there   are   pretty  toys   illustrating 


264  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

some  fairy-tale  or  superstition  and  many  other  play- 
things of  clever  devices,  and  the  little  doll,  O-Hina- 
San  (Honorable  Miss  Hina)  which  is  a  type  of  Jap- 
anese girl  beauty.  The  doll  in  Japan  is  a  sacred  part 
of  the  household.  There  is  a  belief  that  if  it  is  treas- 
ured long  enough  it  becomes  alive.  Such  a  doll  is 
treated  like  a  real  child:  it  is  supposed  to  possess 
supernatural  powers.  One  had  such  rare  powers  that 
childless  couples  used  to  borrow  it.  They  would 
minister  to  it,  and  would  give  it  a  new  outfit  of 
clothes  before  returning  it  to  its  owners.  All  who 
did  this  became  parents.  To  the  Japanese  a  new  doll 
is  only  a  doll ;  but  a  doll  that  has  received  the  love  of 
many  generations  acquires  a  soul.  A  little  Japanese 
girl  was  asked,  "How  can  a  doll  live  ?"  "Why," 
was  the  lovely  answer,  "if  you  love  it  enough,  it  will 
live !" 

Never  is  the  corpse  of  a  doll  thrown  away.  When 
it  has  become  so  worn  out  that  it  must  be  considered 
quite  dead,  it  is  either  burned  or  cast  in  running 
water,  or  it  is  dedicated  to  the  God  Kojin.  In  almost 
every  temple  ground  there  is  planted  a  tree  called 
erwfci,  which  is  sacred  to  Kojin.  Before  the  tree 
will  be  a  little  shrine,  and  either  there  or  at  the 
foot  of  the  sacred  tree,  the  sad  little  remains  will 
be  laid.  Seldom  during  the  lifetime  of  its  owner 
is  a  doll  given  to  Kojin. 

When  you  see  one  thus  exposed,  you  may  be  almost 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  265 

certain  that  it  was  found  among  the  effects  of  some  poor 
dead  woman — the  innocent  memento  of  her  girlhood,  per- 
haps even  also  of  the  girlhood  of  her  mother  and  of  her 
mother's  mother. 

There  is  a  sad  and  awful  tradition  in  the  history 
of  the  Kengyos,  the  oldest  of  the  noble  families  of 
Izumo.  Seven  generations  ago  the  Daimyo  of  Izumo 
made  his  first  official  visit  to  the  temples  of  Hino- 
misaki,  and  was  entertained  royally  hy  the  Kengyo. 
As  was  the  custom,  the  young  wife  served  the  royal 
visitor.  Her  simple  beauty  unfortunately  enchanted 
him,  and  he  demanded  that  she  leave  her  husband 
and  go  with  him.  Terrified,  but  like  a  brave  lov- 
ing wife  and  mother,  she  answered  that  sooner  than 
desert  her  husband  and  child  she  would  kill  herself. 

The  Lord  of  Izumo  went  away,  but  the  little 
household  well  knew  the  evil  that  now  shadowed  it. 
And  shortly  the  Kengyo  was  suddenly  taken  from 
his  family;  tried  at  once  for  some  unknown  offence, 
and  banished  to  the  islands  of  Oki,  where  he  died. 
The  Daimyo  was  exultant,  for  no  obstacle  was  in 
the  way  of  his  desire.  The  wife  of  the  dead  Kengyo 
was  the  daughter  of  his  own  minister,  whose  name 
was  Kamiya.  Kamiya  was  summoned  before  the 
Daimyo,  who  told  him  that  there  was  no  longer  any 
reason  why  Kamiya's  daughter  should  not  enter  his 
household,  and  bade  Kamiya  bring  her  to  him. 

The   next   day   Kamiya   returned,    and   with   the 


266  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

utmost  ceremony  announced  that  the  command  had 
been  fulfilled — the  victim  had  arrived. 

Smiling  for  pleasure,  the  Matsudaira  ordered  that  she 
should  be  brought  at  once  into  his  presence.  The  Karo 
prostrated  himself,  retired,  and  presently  returned,  placed 
before  his  master  a  kubi-oke  upon  which  lay  the  freshly- 
severed  head  of  a  beautiful  woman, — the  head  of  the 
young  wife  of  the  dead  Kengyo, — with  the  simple  utter- 
ance : — 

"This  is  my  daughter." 

Dead  by  her  own  brave  will, — but  never  dishonored. 

"None  love  life  more  than  the  Japanese;  none 
fear  death  less."  So  it  is  that  when  two  lovers 
find  that  they  can  never  wed,  they  keep  the  love 
death  together,  which  is  joshi  or  shirt ju.  By  dying 
they  believe  that  they  will  at  once  be  united  in  an- 
other world.  They  always  pray  that  they  may  be 
buried  together.  '  (In  other  books  are  written  addi- 
tional stories  illustrating  the  touching  custom.) 

At  the  temple  of  Yaegaki  at  Sakusa,  are  the 
Deities  of  Wedlock  and  of  Love,  and  thither  go  all 
youths  and  maidens  who  are  in  love.  Hundreds  of 
strips  of  soft  white  paper  are  knotted  to  the  gratings 
of  the  doors  of  the  shrine.  These  are  the  prayers  of 
love.  Also  there  are  tresses  of  girls'  hair,  love- 
sacrifices,  and  offerings  of  sea-water  and  of  sea-weed. 
In  the  soil  around  the  foundation  of  the  shrine  are 
planted  quantities  of  small  paper  flags. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  267 

All  over  Japan  there  are  little  Shinto  shrines 
before  which  are  images  in  stone  of  foxes. 

The  rustic  foxes  of  Izumo  have  no  grace:  they  are  un- 
couth; but  they  betray  in  countless  queer  ways  the  per- 
sonal fancies  of  their  makers.  They  are  of  many  moods, — 
whimsical,  apathetic,  inquisitive,  ^saturnine,  jocose,  iron- 
ical; they  watch  and  snooze  and  squint  and  wink  and 
sneer;  they  wait  with  lurking  smiles;  they  listen  with 
cocked  ears  most  stealthily,  keeping  their  mouths  open 
or  closed.  There  is  an  amusing  individuality  about  them 
all,  and  an  air  of  knowing  mockery  about  most  of  them, 
even  those  whose  noses  have  been  broken  off.  Moreover, 
these  ancient  foxes  have  certain  natural  beauties  which 
their  modern  Tokyo  kindred  cannot  show.  Time  has  be- 
stowed upon  them  divers  speckled  coats  of  beautiful 
colors  while  they  have  been  sitting  on  their  pedestals, 
listening  to  the  ebbing  and  flowing  of  the  centuries  and 
snickering  weirdly  at  mankind.  Their  backs  are  clad  with 
finest  green  velvet  of  old  mosses;  their  limbs  are  spotted 
and  their  tails  are  tipped  with  the  dead  gold  or  the  dead 
silver  of  delicate  fungi.  And  the  places  they  most  haunt 
are  the  loveliest, — high  shadowy  groves  where  the  uguisu 
sings  in  green  twilight,  above  some  voiceless  shrine  with 
its  lamps  and  its  lions  of  stone  so  mossed  as  to  seem 
things  born  of  the  soil — like  mushrooms. 

It  is  difficult  to  define  the  Fox  superstition,  chiefly 
because  it  has  sprung  from  so  many  elements.  The 
origin  is  Chinese,  and  in  Japan  it  has  become  mixed 
with  the  worship  of  a  Shinto  deity,  and  further  en- 
larged by  the  Buddhist  belief  of  thaumaturgy  and 
magic.  The  peasants  worship  foxes  because  they 


268  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

fear  them.  But  there  are  good  foxes  and  bad  ones. 
The  country  holds  legend  after  legend  of  goblin 
foxes  and  ghost  foxes,  and  foxes  that  take  the  form 
of  human  beings.  Every  Japanese  child  knows  some 
of  them. 

Seldom  is  a  Japanese  garden  a  flower-garden: 
it  may  not  contain  a  flower.  It  is  a  landscape  garden, 
and  its  artistic  purpose  is  to  give  the  impression  of 
a  real  scene.  Besides,  it  is  supposed  to  express 
"a  mood  in  the  soul."  Such  abstract  ideas  as 
Chastity,  Faith,  Connubial  Bliss  were  expressed  by 
the  old  Buddhist  monks  who  first  brought  the  art  into 
Japan.  Little  hills,  and  slopes  of  green,  tiny  river- 
banks,  and  little  islands,  together  with  trees,  and 
stones,  and  flowering  shrubs  are  combined  by  the 
artist.  All  these  things  have  their  poetry  and  legend 
and  sometimes  have  a  special  name  signifying  their 
position  and  rank  in  the  whole  design. 

In  the  ponds  little  creatures  such  as  the  frog  and 
water-beetle  live,  and  they  too  have  their  legends. 
The  children  make  all  of  these  creatures  and  the 
insects  their  playmates.  Then  there  are  the  semi, 
which  are  musicians,  and  lovely  dragon-flies  which 
skim  over  the  ponds ;  and  back  on  the  hill  above  the 
garden  are  many  birds.  It  is  not  necessary  to  have 
a  garden  outdoors,  for  there  are  indoor  gardens 
too  which  can  even  be  put  into  a  Jconiwa,  the  size 
of  a  fruit-dish. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  269 

The  dead  are  never  dead  with  the  Japanese;  they 
become  even  more  important  members  of  the  family, 
for  the  spirits  of  the  dead  control  the  lives  of  the 
living.  Each  day  there  is  some  ceremony  in  memory 
of  these  blessed  dead;  and  no  home  is  so  poor  but 
it  has  its  household  shrine.  And  Shinto,  ancestor- 
worship 

signifies  character  in  the  higher  sense, — courage,  court- 
esy, honor  and  above  all  things  loyalty.  The  spirit  of 
Shinto  is  the  spirit  of  filial  piety,  the  zest  of  duty,  the 
readiness  to  surrender  life  for  a  principle  without  a 
thought  of  wherefore.  It  is  the  docility  of  the  child ;  it  is 
the  sweetness  of  the  Japanese  woman.  It  is  conservatism 
likewise ;  the  wholesome  check  upon  the  national  tendency 
to  cast  away  the  worth  of  the  entire  past  in  rash  eager- 
ness to  assimilate  too  much  of  the  foreign  present.  It  is 
religion, — but  religion  transformed  into  hereditary  moral 
impulse, — religion  transmuted  into  ethical  instinct.  It 
is  the  whole  emotional  life  of  the  race, — the  Soul  of  Japan. 

Self-sacrifice,  loyalty,  the  deepest  spirit  of  Shinto, 
is  born  with  the  child.  If  you  ask  any  Japanese 
student  what  his  dearest  wish  is  he  will  surely 
answer, — "To  die  for  His  Majesty,  our  Emperor." 
It  is  impossible  in  this  limited  space  to  give  an 
adequate  idea  of  all  that  Shintoism  implies. 

The  dressing  of  the  hair  is  a  very  important  part 
of  a  Japanese  woman's  toilet.  It  is  dressed  once 
in  every  three  days,  and  the  task  takes  probably 
two  hours.  The  elaborateness  of  the  coiffure  changes 


270  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

with  the  growing  age  of  the  maiden.  But  when  she 
is  twenty-eight,  she  is  no  longer  young,  and  so  there- 
after only  one  style  is  left,  that  worn  by  old  women. 
Of  course,  there  are  many  superstitions  about 
women's  hair.  It  is  the  Japanese  woman's  dearest 
possession,  and  she  will  undergo  any  suffering  not 
to  lose  it.  At  one  time  it  was  considered  a  fitting 
vengeance  to  shear  the  hair  of  an  erring  wife,  and 
then  turn  her  away. 

Only  the  greatest  faith  or  the  deepest  love  can  prompt 
a  woman  to  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  her  entire  chevelure, 
though  partial  sacrifices,  offerings  of  one  or  two  long 
thick  cuttings,  may  be  seen  suspended  before  many  an 
Izumo  shrine. 

What  faith  can  do  in  the  way  of  such  sacrifice,  he  best 
knows  who  has  seen  the  great  cables,  woven  of  women's 
hair,  that  hang  in  the  vast  Hongwanji  temple  at  Kyoto. 
And  love  is  stronger  than  faith,  though  much  less  demon- 
strative. According  to  an  ancient  custom  a  wife  bereaved 
sacrifices  a  portion  of  her  hair  to  be  placed  in  the  coffin 
of  her  husband,  and  buried  with  him.  The  quantity  is 
not  fixed:  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  very  small,  so 
that  the  appearance  of  the  coiffure  is  thereby  nowise  af- 
fected. But  she  who  resolves  to  remain  forever  faithful 
to  the  memory  of  the  lost  yields  up  all.  With  her  own 
hand  she  cuts  off  her  hair,  and  lays  the  whole  glossy 
sacrifice — emblem  of  her  youth  and  beauty — upon  the 
knees  of  the  dead. 

It  is  never  suffered  to  grow  again. 

The  "Diary  of  a  Teacher"  gives  a  careful  picture 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  271 

of  the  school-life  in  Japan  as  Hearn  finds  it. 
At  the  Normal  School,  which  is  a  state  institute, 
the  young  man  student  has  no  expenses.  In  re- 
turn for  these  kindnesses,  when  he  graduates  he 
serves  as  a  teacher  for  five  years.  Discipline  is 
severe,  and  deportment  is  a  demand.  "A  spirit  of 
manliness  is  cultivated,  which  excludes  roughness 
but  develops  self-reliance  and  self -control." 

The  silence  of  study  hours  is  perfect,  and  without 
permission  no  head  is  ever  raised  from  a  book. 

The  female  department  is  in  a  separate  building. 
Girls  are  taught  the  European  sciences,  and  are 
trained  in  all  the  Japanese  arts,  such  as  embroidery, 
decoration,  painting ;  and  of  course  that  most  delicate 
of  arts — the  arranging  of  flowers.  Drawing  is  taught 
in  all  the  schools.  By  fifty  per  cent,  do  Japanese 
students  excel  the  English  students-  in  drawing. 

There  is  also  a  large  elementary  school  for  little 
boys  and  girls  connected  with  the  Normal  School. 
These  are  taught  by  the  students  in  the  graduating 
classes.  Noteworthy  is  the  spirit  of  peace  prevailing 
at  the  recesses  that  occur  for  ten  minutes  between 
each  lesson.  The  boys  romp  and  shout  and  race, 
but  never  quarrel.  Hearn  says  that  among  the  800 
scholars  whom  he  has  taught,  he  has  never  even  heard 
of  a  fight,  nor  of  any  serious  quarrel.  The  girls 
sing  or  play  some  gentle  game,  and  the  teachers  are 
kind  and  watchful  of  the  smaller  scholars.  If  a 


272  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

dress  is  torn  or  soiled  the  child  is  cared  for  as  care- 
fully as  if  she  were  a  younger  sister. 

No  teacher  would  ever  think  of  striking  a  scholar. 
If  he  did  so  he  would  at  once  have  to  give  up  his  posi- 
tion. In  fact,  punishments  are  unknown.  "The 
spirit  is  rather  reversed.  In  the  Occident  the  master 
expels  the  pupil.  In  Japan  it  happens  quite  as 
often  that  the  pupil  expels  the  master." 

It  takes  the  Japanese  student  seven  years  to  ac- 
quire the  triple  system  of  ideographs,  which  is  the 
alphabet  of  his  native  literature.  He  must  also  he 
versed  in  the  written  and  the  spoken  literature.  He 
must  study  foreign  history,  geography,  arithmetic, 
astronomy,  physics,  geometry,  natural  history,  agri- 
culture, chemistry,  drawing. 

Worst  of  all  he  must  learn  English, — a  language  of 
which  the  difficulty  to  the  Japanese  cannot  be  even  faintly 
imagined  by  anyone  unfamiliar  with  the  construction  of 
the  native  tongue, — a  language  so  different  from  his  own 
that  the  very  simplest  Japanese  phrase  cannot  be  intel- 
ligibly rendered  into  English  by  a  literal  translation  of 
the  words  or  even  the  form  of  the  thought. 

And  he  studies  all  this  upon  the  slimmest  of  diets, 
clad  in  thin  clothes  in  cold  rooms.  No  wonder  many 
fall  by  the  way. 

The  students  have  been  trained  to  find  a  moral 
in  all  things.  If  the  theme  given  to  them  for  a 
composition  is  a  native  one,  they  will  never  fail 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  273 

to  find  it.  For  instance, — a  peony  is  very  beau- 
tiful, but  it  has  a  disagreeable  odor;  hence  we 
should  remember  that  "To  be  attracted  by  beauty 
only  may  lead  us  into  fearful  and  fatal  misfortune." 
The  sting  of  the  mosquito  is  useful  for  "then  we  shall 
be  bringed  back  to  study." 

There  is  nothing  distinctive  about  the  Japanese 
countenance,  but  there  is  an  intangible  pleasantness 
that  is  common  to  all.  Contrasted  with  Occidental 
faces  they  seem  "half -sketched."  The  outlines  are 
very  soft,  there  is  "neither  aggressiveness  nor  shy- 
ness, neither  eccentricity  nor  sympathy,  neither 
curiosity  nor  indifference.  .  .  .  But  all  are 
equally  characterized  by  a  singular  placidity, — ex- 
pressing neither  love  nor  hate  nor  anything  save  per- 
fect repose  and  gentleness, — like  the  dreamy  placidity 
of  Buddhist  images."  Later,  these  faces  become 
individualized. 

In  another  chapter  Hearn  tells  of  Two  Festi- 
vals: one  the  festival  of  the  !N"ew  Year;  and  the 
other,  the  Festival  of  Setsubun,  which  is  the  time 
for  the  casting  out  of  devils.  On  the  eve  of  this 
latter  festival,  the  Yaku-otoshi,  who  is  the  caster-out 
of  the  demons,  goes  around,  to  any  houses  that  may 
desire  his  services,  and  performs  his  exorcism,  for 
which  he  receives  a  little  fee.  The  rites  consist  of 
the  recitation  of  certain  prayers,  and  the  rattling  of 
a  shakujo.  The  shakujo  is  an  odd-shaped  staff. 


274  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

There  is  a  tradition  that  it  was  first  used  by  Bud- 
dhist pilgrims  to  warn  little  creatures  and  insects  to 
get  out  of  the  way. 

I  quote  from  a  French  review  for  the  description 
of  one  of  Hearn's  stories: — 

"But  the  most  beautiful  of  all,  'A  Dancing  Girl/ 
is  drawn  from  the  chronicles  of  that  far-off  Past, 
from  which,  say  what  one  may,  he  is  certainly  wise 
in  drawing  his  inspirations.  It  is  the  story  of  a 
courtesan  in  love. 

"At  the  height  of  her  celebrity,  this  idol  of  a  capital 
disappears  from  public  life,  and  nobody  knows  why. 
Leaving  fortune  behind  she  flies  with  a  poor  youth 
who  loves  her.  They  build  for  themselves  a  little 
house  in  the  mountains  and  there  exist  apart  from  the 
world,  one  for  the  other.  But  the  lover  dies  one 
cold  winter,  and  she  remains  alone,  with  no  other 
consolation  than  to  dance  for  him  every  evening  in 
the  deserted  house.  For  he  loved  to  see  her  dance, 
and  he  must  still  take  pleasure  in  it.  Therefore, 
daily,  she  places  on  the  memorial  altar  the  ac- 
customed offerings,  and  at  night  she  dances  decked 
out  in  the  same  finery  as  when  she  was  the  delight  of 
a  large  city.  And  the  day  comes,  when  old,  decrepit, 
dying,  reduced  to  beggary,  she  carries  her  superb  cos- 
tume faded  with  time,  to  a  painter  who  had  seen  her 
in  the  days  of  her  beauty,  that  he  may  accept  it  in 
exchange  for  a  portrait  made  from  memory,  which 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  275 

shall  be  placed  before  the  altar  always  bearing  offer- 
ings, that  her  beloved  may  ever  see  her  young,  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  shirabyaslii,  and  that  he  may 
forgive  her  for  not  being  able  to  dance  any  more. 

"This  shirabyashi,  from  the  distance  of  time,  ap- 
pears to  us  here,  clothed  with*  I  know  not  what  of 
hieratical  dignity,  such  as  the  modern  geisha  could 
never  possess.  Lafcadio  Hearn  in  no  wise  pretends 
in  the  pages  he  devotes  to  these  latter,  to  idealize 
them  beyond  measure.  They  appear  under  his  pen 
as  pretty  animals  somewhat  dangerous;  but  is  it 
not  their  calling  to  be  so?  Whatever  be  the  rank 
of  the  Japanese  woman,  he  only  speaks  of  her  with 
an  extreme  discretion,  and  with  a  caution  that  one 
would  look  for  in  vain  in  the  portrait  of  Mme. 
Chrysantheme.  The  subtle  voluptuousness  of  his 
style  is  never  extended  to  the  scenes  he  reproduces; 
it  is  a  style  immaterial  to  a  rare  degree;  he  knows 
how  to  make  us  understand  what  he  means,  without 
one  word  to  infringe  those  proprieties  that  are  dear 
to  the  Japanese,  even  more  than  virtue  itself.  And 
to  believe  him,  the  young,  well  brought  up  girl,  the 
honest  wife,  are  in  Japan  the  most  perfect  types 
of  femininity  that  he  has  ever  met  in  any  part  of  the 
world; — he,  who  has  traveled  so  much.  Opinions 
formed  superficially  by  globe-trotters  on  this  subject 
that  he  scarcely  glances  at  because  of  respect,  arouse 
as  much  indignation  in  him  as  could  they  in  the 


276  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Japanese  themselves.  Evidently  he  has  penetrated 
into  their  inner  life,  into  the  mystery  of  their 
thoughts,  into  their  hidden  springs  of  action,  to  the 
point  of  participating  in  their  feelings."  (390.) 

From  Hoki  to  Oki  there  is  much  to  learn  about 
the  landscapes  of  Western  and  Central  Japan;  and 
Hearn  gives  many  legends,  and  many  more  impres- 
sions and  intimate  glimpses. 

As  there  are  only  walls  of  thin  paper  separating 
the  lives  of  these  Japanese  people,  no  privacy  can 
exist.  Really  everything  is  done  in  public,  even 
your  thoughts  must  be  known.  And  it  never  occurs 
to  a  Japanese  that  there  should  be  any  reason  for 
living  unobserved.  This  must  show  a  rare  moral 
condition,  and  is  understood  only  by  those  who  ap- 
preciate the  charm  of  the  Japanese  character,  its 
goodness,  and  its  politeness. 

No  one  endeavors  to  expand  his  own  individuality  by 
belittling  his  fellow;  no  one  tries  to  make  himself  appear 
a  superior  being:  any  such  attempt  would  be  vain  in  a 
community  where  the  weaknesses  of  each  are  known  to 
all,  where  nothing  can  be  concealed  or  disguised,  and 
where  affectation  could  only  be  regarded  as  a  mild  form  of 
insanity. 

Hearn  speaks  of  the  strange  public  curiosity  which 
his  presence  aroused  at  Urago.  It  was  not  a  rude 
curiosity;  in  fact,  one  so  gentle  that  he  could  not 
wish  the  gazers  rebuked.  But  so  insistent  did  it  be- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  277 

come  that  he  had  to  close  his  doors  and  windows  to 
prevent  his  being  watched  while  he  was  sleep. 

Kinjuro,  the  ancient  gardener,  knows  a  great  many 
things  about  souls.  "No  one  is  by  the  gods  permitted 
to  have  more  souls  than  nine."  Kinjuro  also  knows 
legends  about  ghosts  and  goblin's. 

An  essay  penetrating  the  very  heart  of  the  Jap- 
anese, is  the  chapter  on  the  "Japanese  Smile."  It 
crowns  Hearn's  work  as  a  superb  interpretation  of 
Japanese  soul-life.  This  smile  is  the  outward  and 
visible  sign  of  the  inward  and  spiritual  grace  of 
self-sacrifice.  It  is  metaphysically  and  psycholog- 
ically exquisite.  It  is  an  etiquette  which  for  gen- 
erations has  been  cultivated.  It  was  a  smile,  in 
origin,  however,  demanded  by  hard  heathen  gods 
of  the  victims  they  sacrificed ;  and,  in  history,  it  was 
demanded  of  the  subject  race  by  the  early  conquerors. 
If  refused,  then  off  came  their  heads !  The  smile  is 
born  with  the  Japanese  child,  and  is  nurtured  through 
all  the  growing  years. 

The  smile  is  taught  like  the  bow;  like  the  prostration; 
like  that  little  sibilant  sucking-in  of  the  breath  which 
follows,  as  a  token  of  pleasure,  the  salutation  to  a  supe- 
rior; like  all  the  elaborate  and  beautiful  etiquette  of  the 
old  courtesy. 

The  Japanese  believe  that  one  should  always  turn 
one's  happiest  face  to  people.  It  is  a  wrong  to 
cause  them  to  share  your  sorrow  or  misfortune,  and 


278  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

so  hurt  or  sadden  them.  One  should  never  look 
serious.  It  is  not  only  unkind  but  extremely  rude 
to  show  one's  personal  griefs  or  anger :  these  feelings 
should  always  he  hidden.  Even  though  it  is  death 
one  must  face,  it  is  a  duty  to  smile  hravely. 

It  was  with  such  a  smile  that  the  dying  hoy 
Shida  wrote  and  pasted  upon  the  wall  over  his  hed  :— 

Thou,  my  Lord-Soul,  dost  govern  me.  Thou  knowest 
that  I  cannot  now  govern  myself.  Deign,  I  pray  thee, 
to  let  me  be  cured  speedily.  Do  not  suffer  me  to  speak 
much.  Make  me  to  obey  in  all  things  the  command  of 
the  physician. 

This  ninth  day  of  the  eleventh  month  of  the  twenty- 
fourth  year  of  Meiji. 

From  the  sick  body  of  Shida  to  his  Soul. 

The  key  to  the  mystery  of  the  most  unaccountable  smiles 
is  Japanese  politeness.  The  servant  sentenced  to  dis- 
missal for  a  fault  prostrates  himself,  and  asks  for  pardon 
with  a  smile.  That  smile  indicates  the  very  reverse  of 
callousness  or  insolence:  "Be  assured  that  I  am  satis- 
fied with  the  great  justice  of  your  honorable  sentence, 
and  that  I  am  aware  of  the  gravity  of  my  fault.  Yet 
my  sorrow  and  my  necessity  have  caused  me  to  indulge 
the  unreasonable  hope  that  I  may  be  forgiven  for  my 
great  rudeness  in  asking  pardon."  The  youth  or  girl 
beyond  the  age  of  childish  tears  when  punished  for  some 
error,  receives  the  punishment  with  a  smile  which  means: 
' t  No  evil  feeling  arises  in  my  heart ;  much  worse  than  this 
my  fault  has  deserved. ' ' 

This  quality,  which  has  become  as  natural  to  the 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          279 

Japanese  as  the  very  breath  of  his  body,  is  the  sweet 
tonic-note  of  his  whole  character. 

Sayonara!  Across  the  waters  echoes  the  cry, 
Manzai,  Manzai!  (Ten  thousand  years  to  you!  ten 
thousand  years!).  Hearn  is  leaving.  He  is  going 
far  away.  His  pupils  write  expressing  their  sorrow 
and  regret.  He  sends  them  a  letter  thanking  them 
for  their  gift  of  a  beautiful  sword,  and  in  a  loving 
farewell  says: 

May  you  always  keep  fresh  within  your  hearts  those 
impulses  of  generosity  and  kindliness  and  loyalty  which 
I  have  learned  to  know  so  well,  and  of  which  your  gift 
will  ever  remain  for  me  the  graceful  symbol! 

And  a  symbol  not  only  of  your  affection  and  loyalty 
as  student*  to  teachers,  but  of  that  other  beautiful  sense 
of  duty  expressed,  when  so  many  of  you  wrote  down  for 
me,  as  your  dearest  wish,  the  desire  to  die  for  His  Im- 
perial Majesty,  your  Emperor.  That  wish  is  holy:  it 
means  perhaps  more  than  you  know,  or  can  know,  until 
you  shall  have  become  much  older  and  wiser.  This  is 
an  era  of  great  and  rapid  change;  and  it  is  probable  that 
many  of  you,  as  you  grow  up,  will  not  be  able  to  believe 
everything  that  your  fathers  believed  before  you,  though 
I  sincerely  trust  you  will  at  least  continue  always  to 
respect  the  faith,  even  as  you  still  respect  the  memory, 
of  your  ancestors.  But  however  much  the  life  of  New 
Japan  may  change  about  you,  however  much  your  own 
thoughts  may  change  with  the  times,  never  suffer  that 
noble  wish  you  expressed  to  me  to  pass  away  from  your 
souls.  Keep  it  burning  there,  clear  and  pure  as  the  flame 
of  the  little  lamp  that  glows  before  your  household  shrine. 


280  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

OUT  OF  THE  EAST1  (8),  followed  "Glimpses  of 
Unfamiliar  Japan."  The  charm  of  the  first  impres- 
sion is  waning. 

In  a  letter  Hearn  writes: — 

Every  day,  it  strikes  me  more  and  more  how  little  I 
shall  ever  know  of  the  Japanese.  I  have  been  working 
hard  at  a  new  book,  which  is  now  half  finished,  and  con- 
sists of  philosophical  sketches  chiefly.  It  will  be  a  very 
different  book  from  the  "Glimpses,"  and  will  show  you 
how  much  the  Japanese  world  has  changed  for  me.  I 
imagine  that  sympathy  and  friendship  are  almost  impos- 
sible for  any  foreigner  to  obtain, — because  of  the  amazing 
difference  in  the  psychology  of  the  two  races.  We  only 
guess  at  each  other  without  understanding. 

In  another  letter,  speaking  of  the  title  for  this 
book,  he  continues : — 

It  was  suggested  only  by  the  motto  of  the  Oriental  So- 
ciety, "Ex  Oriente  lux!'  .  .  .  The  simpler  the  title, 
and  the  vaguer — in  my  case — the  .better:  the  vagueness 
touches  curiosity.  Besides,  the  book  is  a  vague  thing. 

The  Academy,  writing  of  "Out  of  the  East,"  says: 
"Each  hook  marks  a  longer  step  towards  the  Bud- 
dhist mysticism,  wherein  we  have  lost  our  poet.  'The 
Stone  Buddha/  in  the  first  mentioned  book,  is  a 
dreamy  dialogue  between  the  wisdom  of  the  West ; 
Science,  with  her  theories  of  evolution,  revolution 
and  dissolution ;  Buddhism,  with  its  re-birth  on  re- 

HDopyright,  1895,  by  Lafcadio  Hearn ;  and  published  by 
Hougbton,  Mifflin  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes         281 

rebirth;  and  Nirvana  at  the  end.  This  thing  also 
is  vanity.  As  there  can  be  no  end,  so  there  can  be 
110  beginning;  even  Time  is  an  illusion,  and  there  is 
nothing  new  beneath  a  hundred  million  suns."  (286.) 

The  old  charm  of  word  color  sparkles  in  "The 
Dream  of  a  Summer  Day." 

Mile  after  mile  I  rolled  along  that  shore,  looking  into 
the  infinite  light.  All  was  steeped  in  blue, — a  marvellous 
blue,  like  that  which  comes  and  goes  in  the  heart  of  a 
great  shell.  Glowing  blue  sea  met  hollow  blue  sky  in  a 
brightness  of  electric  fusion;  and  vast  blue  apparitions — 
the  mountains  of  Higo — angled  up.  through  the  blaze, 
like  masses  of  amethyst.  What  a  blue  transparency! 
The  universal  color  was  broken  only  by  the  dazzling  white 
of  a  few  high  summer  clouds,  motionlessly  curled  above 
one  phantom  peak  in  the  offing.  They  threw  down  upon 
the  water  snowy  tremulous  lights.  Midges  or  ships  creep- 
ing far  away  seemed  to  pull  long  threads  after  them, — 
the  only  sharp  lines  in  all  that  hazy  glory.  But  what 
divine  clouds!  White  purified  spirits  of  clouds,  resting 
on  their  way  to  the  beatitude  of  Nirvana?  Or  perhaps 
the  mists  escaped  from  Urashima's  box  a  thousand  years 
ago? 

The  gnat  of  the  soul  of  me  flitted  out  into  that  dream 
of  blue,  'twixt  sea  and  sun, — hummed  back  to  the  shore 
of  Suminoye  through  the  luminous  ghosts  of  fourteen 
hundred  summers. 

And  Hearn  tells  with  charm  why  "the  mists 
escaped  from  Urashima's  box  a  thousand  years  ago," 
and  also  of  the  old,  old  woman  who  drank  too  deeply 
of  the  magical  waters  of  youth. 


282  Concerning  Lafcadio  Heam 

Reviewing  the  present  volume,  the  Spectator  re- 
marks : — 

"The  main  drift  of  his  books,  however,  is  to  bring 
into  view  not  so  much  the  glories  of  Japanese  sun- 
light or  the  charms  of  animate  or  inanimate  Nature, 
on  which  it  falls,  as  the  prevalence,  at  any  rate  in 
extensive  sections  of  Japanese  society,  of  modes  of 
thought  and  standards  of  conduct  which,  though  often 
widely  apart  from  our  own,  demand  the  respect  of 
every  candid  Englishman.  And  certainly  in  this 
endeavor  he  meets  with  a  large  measure  of  success. 
His  account  of  the  essays  written  and  the  questions 
asked  by  the  members  of  his  class  in  English  language 
and  literature  at  the  Government  college,  or  Higher 
Middle  School,  of  Kyushu,  discloses  not  only  what 
must  be  regarded  as  a  very  good  development  of 
general  intelligence  among  those  young  men,  but  a 
moral  tone  which  in  many  respects  is  quite  as  high, 
though  with  interesting  differences  in  point  of  view, 
as  would  be  expected  among  English  boys  or  young 
men  in  the  upper  forms  of  our  great  public-schools 
or  at  the  Universities.  Of  course,  what  boys  or  young 
men  write  for  or  say  to  their  masters  and  tutors  can- 
not by  any  means  always  be  taken  as  sure  evidence 
of  their  inner  feelings  or  of  the  character  of  their 
daily  life.  But,  so  far  as  one  can  judge,  Hearn's 
pupils  appear  to  have  given  him  their  confidence,  and 
what  he  tells  us  of  them  may  therefore  reasonably 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          283 

be  taken  without  much  discount.  It  certainly  il- 
lustrates an  attractive  simplicity  of  character  and 
thought,  not  untouched  by  poetic  imagination,  to- 
gether with  a  high  development  of  family  affection 
and  strong  sense  of  family  duty,  and  also  a  remark- 
ably high  level  of  patriotic  feeling.  This  spirit  is 
apparently  inherited  from  the  old  military  class  of 
the  island  of  Kyushu,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to  hear 
that  rich  men  at  a  distance  are  keen  to  give  their 
sons  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  the  Kyushu  'tone.7 
Towards  the  close  of  his  book  Mr.  Hearn  gives  an 
extremely  interesting  account  of  a  farewell  visit  paid 
him  in  the  autumn  of  1894  by  an  old  pupil  who  had 
entered  the  army  after  leaving  college,  and  had  been 
placed,  at  his  own  request,  in  one  of  the  divisions 
ordered  for  service  in  Corea : — 


1 1 


'  And  now  I  am  so  glad, ' '  he  exclaimed,  his  face  radiant 
with  a  soldier 's  joy,  '  '  we  go  to-morrow. ' '  Then  he  blushed 
again,  as  if  ashamed  of  having  uttered  his  frank  delight. 
I  thought  of  Carlyle's  deep  saying,  that  never  pleasures, 
but  only  suffering  and  death  are  the  lures  that  draw  true 
hearts.  I  thought  also — what  I  could  not  say  to  any 
Japanese — that  the  joy  in  the  lad 's  eyes  was  like  nothing  I 
had  ever  seen  before,  except  the  caress  in  the  eyes  of  a 
lover  on  the  morning  of  his  bridal. 

"A  beautiful  thought,  the  reader  will  agree;  but 
why  could  it  not  be  uttered  to  a  Japanese  ?  A  good 
deal  will  be  found  on  this  subject  in  Mr.  Hearn's 


284  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

book,  and,  as  we  have  indicated,  we  do  not  think  it  all 
holds  together.  His  class  of  students,  we  learn,  pro- 
fessed to  think  it  Very,  very  strange'  that  there  should 
be  so  much  in  English  novels  about  love  and  marry- 
ing; and  then  he  tells  us  that — 

Any  social  system  of  which  filial  piety  is  not  the  moral 
cement;  any  social  system  in  which  children  leave  their 
parents  in  order  to  establish  families  of  their  own;  any 
social  system  in  which  it  is  considered  not  only  natural 
but  right  to  love  wife  and  child  more  than  the  authors 
of  one's  being;  any  social  system  in  which  marriage  can 
be  decided  independently  of  the  will  of  the  parents  by  the 
mutual  inclination  of  the  young  people  themselves  .... 
appears,  to  the  Japanese  student  of  necessity  a  state  of 
life  scarcely  better  than  that  of  the  birds  of  the  air  and 
the  beasts  of  the  field,  or  at  best  a  sort  of  moral  chaos. 

"Now,  of  course,  it  is  known  here  that  in  Japan,  as 
in  other  Oriental  countries,  it  is  a  rule  for  marriages 
to  be  family  arrangements,  as  regards  which  it  is 
expected  that  the  young  persons  will  conform  to  the 
wishes  of  their  respective  parents. 

*         *         *         *         *         *         -x-         -x- 

"But  of  course  some  inconsistencies  are  to  be 
expected  from  an  author  enamoured  of  the  whole 
country.  He  is  very  Buddhist,  and  is  anxious  to 
show  that  Buddhists  have  always  held,  in  matters  of 
faith  something  very  like  the  doctrines  of  modern 
science  with  regard  to  the  perpetual  sequence  of  evo- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  285 

lution  and  dissolution.  On  this  subject  he  argues 
cleverly  and  effectively;  but  when,  by  implication  or 
expressly,  he  compares  Buddhism  with  Christianity, 
it  is  evident  that  the  latter  faith  has  not  received  any 
very  close  study  from  him.  None  the  less  is  his 
book,  though  dominated  by  a  somewhat  uncritical 
enthusiasm,  full  of  interest  and  instruction  as  to  the 
difference  between  the  gifts,  the  motives,  and  the 
mental  and  moral  attitude  of  the  Japanese  and  the 
peoples  of  the  West,  ourselves  in  particular.  It  is 
well  worth  while  to  study  that  remarkable  people  as 
they  are  seen  by  one  who  is  so  much  captivated  by 
them,  and  believes  in  them  so  strongly,  as  Mr.  Laf- 
cadio  Hearn."  (380.) 

The  Athenaeum  does  not  speak  so  cordially,  and  a 
review  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  says: 

"Mr.  Hearn  is  not  at  his  best  as  a  metaphysician. 

.  .  .  But  we  can  forgive  him  in  that  he  stands 
forth  a  stanch  champion,  defying  the  West  from  the 
heart  of  the  Japanese  people.  He  does  this  most 
clearly  in  his  finest  essay,  'Jiujutsu.'  Here  the  very 
meaning  of  the  martial  exercise,  to  'conquer  by  yield- 
ing' is  taken  as  text  to  explain  the  phenomena  or  na- 
tional awakening  which  foreign  cities  have  denounced 
as  a  'reversal.'  Japan  has  borrowed  weapons  of 
force  from  the  West,  in  order  successfully  to  resist 
its  insiditfus  influence.  True  progress  is  from  within. 
Mr.  Hearn  writes : — 


286  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

However  psychologists  may  theorize  on  the  absence  or 
the  limitations  of  personal  individuality  among  the 
Japanese,  there  can  be  no  question  at  all  that  as  a  nation, 
Japan  possesses  an  individuality  stronger  than  our  own." 
(306.) 

Hearn  further  brings  out  in  a  conversation  with 
a  young  Japanese  the  fact  that  Japan,  in  order 
to  keep  pace  with  the  competition  of  other  nations, 
must  adopt  the  methods  which  are  in  direct  variance 
to  her  old  morality,  and  all  that  which  has  made 
the  Japanese  what  he  is.  Japan's  future  depends 
upon  her  industrial  development,  and  the  fine  old 
qualities  of  self-sacrifice,  simplicity,  filial  piety,  the 
contentment  with  little,  are  not  the  weapons  for  the 
modern  struggle.  In  a  postscript  to  this  essay,  writ- 
ten two  years  laters,  after  the  war  with  China, 
Hearn  adds  that  "Japan  has  proved  herself  able  to 
hold  her  own  against  the  world.  .  .  .  Japan  has 
won  in  her  jiututsu." 

Japan  holds  infinite  legends  of  ghostly  significance, 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  Hearn  found  so  much  that 
was  sympathetic.  Every  new  town  or  new  temple 
reveals  some  aspect  of  the  odd.  In  this  second  book 
the  joyousness  is  gone;  he  is  now  a  philosopher,  and 
his  philosophy  reflects  much  of  the  ghostly.  The 
gruesome  has  been  buried,  but  it  is  not  dead :  it  will 
return  reincarnated,  not  of  the  ghastly  of  real  life, 
but  of  the  dim,  far-away,  always  more  distant  ghostly 
in  the  lives  of  the  dead. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  287 

A  revelation  of  the  Nirvana  into  which  Hearn 
is  being  slowly  drawn  appears  in  "At  Hakata."  He 
has  been  telling  the  story  of  the  sacred  mirror  that  a 
mother  in  dying  gave  to  her  daughter,  bidding  her 
to  look  into  it  every  morning  and  evening  and  there 
see  her  mother.  And  the  girl  looked  and  "having  the 
heart  of  meeting  her  mother  every  day/7  knew  not 
that  the  shadow  in  the  mirror  was  her'  own  face. 

One  are  we  all, — and  yet  many,  because  each  is  a  world 
of  ghosts.  Surely  that  girl  saw  and  spoke  to  her  mother 's 
very  soul,  while  seeing  the  fair  shadow  of  her  own  young 
eyes  and  lips,  uttering  love ! 

And  with  this  thought,  the  strange  display  in  the  old 
temple  court  takes  a  new  meaning, — becomes  the  sym- 
bolism of  a  sublime  expectation.  Each  of  us  is  truly 
a  mirror,  imaging  something  of  the  universe, — reflecting 
also  the  reflection  of  ourselves  in  that  universe;  and 
perhaps  the  destiny  of  all  is  to  be  molten  by  that  mighty 
Image-maker,  Death,  into  some  great  sweet  passionless 
unity.  How  the  vast  work  shall  be  wrought,  only  those 
to  come  after  us  may  know.  We  of  the  present  West  do 
not  know:  we  merely  dream.  But  the  ancient  East  be- 
lieves Here  is  the  simple  imagery  of  her  faith.  All  forms 
must  vanish  at  last  to  blend  with  that  Being  whose  smile 
is  immutable  Rest, — whose  knowledge  is  Infinite  Vision. 

"The  Red  Bridal"  is  a  story  of  josJii — the  joint 
suicide  for  love.  These  two  young  people  had  been 
playmates  since  their  early  school-days,  and  were 
deeply  attached  to  each  other.  The  girl's  father, 
under  the  influence  of  an  evil  stepmother,  agrees  to 


288  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

sell  his  daughter  to  the  richest  and  also  the  most  dis- 
reputable man  in  the  village.  Hearing  this  awful 
command,  the  maiden  only  smiles  the  brave  smile — 
inheritance  of  her  Samurai  blood.  She  knows  what 
she  must  do.  ...  Together  she  and  her  lover 
quietly  meet  the  Tokyo  express.  As  its  low  roar 
draws  nearer,  they  "wound  their  arms  about  each 
other,  and  lay  down  cheek  to  cheek,  very  softly  and 
quietly,  straight  across  the  inside  rail." 

We  close  the  book  with  the  memory  of  Yuko, 
heroic  little  Yuko,  who,  even  as  noble  Asakachi,  who 
had  his  beautiful  wish  to  die  for  his  country  ful- 
filled, proves  that  the  Japanese  spirit  of  loyalty  is 
far  greater  than  our  word  implies.  With  all  her 
country,  Yuko,  a  humble  little  serving-maid,  whose 
name  signifies  "valiant,"  is  sorrowing  because  of  a 
Japanese  attack  upon  the  Czarevitch  of  the  Russians. 
Her  soul  burns  with  the  desire  to  give  something  that 
will  soften  the  sorrow  of  the  August  One;  for  the 
heart  of  the  girl,  being  that  of  a  true  Japanese, 
grieves  not  alone  for  what  has  happened,  but  with  a 
deeper  sense  of  the  grief  caused  to  the  August  One. 
The  cry  goes  from  Yuko  asking  how  she,  who  has 
nothing,  can  give;  and  from  the  lips  of  the  dead 
within  her  comes  the  answer:  "Give  thyself.  To 
give  life  for  the  August  One  is  the  highest  duty,  the 
highest  joy."  "And  in  what  place?"  she  asks. 
"Saikyo,"  answer  the  silent  voices;  "in  the  gate- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  289 

way  of  those  who  by  ancient   custom  should  have 
died." 

Does  she  falter?     No. 

For  her  the  future  holds  no  blackness.  Always  she  will 
see  the  rising  of  the  holy  Sun  above  the  peaks,  the  smile 
of  the  Lady-Moon  upon  the  waters,  the  eternal  magic 
of  the  Seasons.  She  will  haunt  the  places  of  beauty, 
beyond  the  folding  of  the  mists,  in  the  sleep  of  the  cedar- 
shadows,  through  circling  of  innumerable  years.  She  will 
know  a  subtler  life,  in  the  faint  winds  that  stir  the  snow 
of  the  flowers  of  the  cherry,  in  the  laughter  of  playing 
waters,  in  every  happy  whisper  of  the  vast  green  silences. 
But  first  she  will  greet  her  kindred,  somewhere  in  shadowy 
halls  awaiting  her  coming  to  say  to  her : — 

"Thou  hast  done  well, — like  a  daughter  of  Samurai. 
Enter,  child!  because  of  thee  to-night  we  sup  with  the 
Gods!" 

It  is  daylight  when  Yuko  enters  Kyoto.  She  finds 
a  lodging,  and  then  goes  to  a  skillful  female  hair- 
dresser. Her  little  razor  is  made  very  sharp.  Re- 
turning to  her  room,  she  writes  a  letter  of  fare- 
well to  her  brother,  and  an  appeal  to  the  officials 
asking  that  the  Tenshi-Sama  may  be  begged  to  cease 
from  suffering  "seeing  that  a  young  life,  even  though 
unworthy,  has  been  given  in  voluntary  expiation  of 
the  wrong." 

At  the  dark  hour  before  dawn  she  slips  to  the 
gate  of  the  Government  edifice.  Whispering  a 
prayer,  she  kneels.  Then,  with  her  long  under-girdle 


290  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

of  silk  she  binds  her  robes  tightly  about  her  knees, 
for 

the  daughter  of  a  Samurai  must  always  be  found  in  death 
with  limbs  decently  composed.  Then  with  steady  pre- 
cision, she  makes  in  her  throat  a  gash,  out  of  which  the 
blood  leaps  in  a  pulsing  jet.  . 

At  sunrise  the  police  find  her,  quite  cold,  and  the  two 
letters,  and  a  poor  little  purse  containing  five  yen  and  a 
few  sen  (enough,  she  had  hoped,  for  her  burial)  ;  and 
they  take  her  and  all  her  small  belongings  away. 


1  (9),  the  next  book,  could  well  be  a  con- 
tinuation of  "Out  of  the  East."  Hearn  speaks  of  it 
as  "terribly  radical/'  and  "rather  crazy;"  and  he 
fears  that  his  views,  which  are  greatly  opposed  in 
the  West,  may  not  be  well  received. 

"The  fifteen  chapters  of  which  the  book  is  com- 
posed," says  a  German  review,  "do  not  contain  the 
results  of  any  research  into  the  domain  of  politics, 
art  or  religion.  They  are  rather  fragments  from 
Japanese  life,  and  so  clear  is  the  language  that  the 
pictures  given  are  brought  home  to  us  with  wonder- 
ful effect.  Lafcadio  Hearn  is  a  journalist  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word.  He  is  a  writer  who  has  some- 
thing striking  and  original  to  say  upon  the  events  of 
the  day,  upon  the  conditions  and  institutions  of  a 
land,  upon  the  possibilities  of  development  in  a  peo- 
ple, upon  deep  philosophical,  social  and  religious 

Copyright,  1896,  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  291 

problems,  upon  the  'Idea  of  Pre-existence/  upon 
Buddhism  and  Shintoism,  upon  the  difference  be- 
tween Occidental  and  Oriental  culture,  and  who 
judges  all  things,  all  conditions  that  he  sees,  from 
lofty  heights.  He  is  besides  a  character,  a  man  of 
great  ideals;  he  has  a  fine  artistic  feeling  and  is, 
moreover,  able  to  render  in  wonderfully  sympathetic 
language  tender  moods  which  come  to  him  at  the 
sight  of  a  landscape,  a  work  of  art.  Extraordinarily 
capable  of  assimilation,  he,  to  whom  Japan  has 
become  a  second  home,  has  entirely  fitted  himself 
into  the  Japanese  life.  He  is  so  delighted  with  the 
customs,  with  the  political  and  social  conditions,  with 
the  simple  family  life,  with  the  religion,  the  cere- 
monies, the  ancestor-worship,  and  with  the  business 
intercourse  carried  on  among  themselves — which  he 
assures  us  is  characterized  by  exceptional  probity — 
in  short,  he  is  so  delighted  with  all  the  activities  of 
this  people  that  he  thinks  them  the  best  possible  be- 
cause they  spring  from  the  inmost  life  of  an  ethical 
and  never  intellectual  temperament.  Therefore  he 
takes  sides  with  them  passionately  against  the  mod- 
ern tendencies  of  Europe."  (395.) 

In  the  opening  story,  which  I  think  will  be  found 
one  of  his  best,  is  portrayed  the  manner  of  a  Japa- 
nese crowd  in  dealing  with  a  criminal;  and  how  this 
criminal  was  brought  to  atonement  by  the  gaze  of  a 
little  child,  the  son  of  the  man  he  murdered,  while 


292  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

the  little  one  was  yet  in  his  mother's  womb. 

The  next  chapter  is  a  discussion  of  Japanese 
Civilization.  In  1903,  Hearn  wrote: — 

11  The  Genius  of  Japanese  Civilization  "  is  a  failure. 
I  thought  that  it  was  true  when  I  wrote  it;  but  already 
Japan  has  become  considerably  changed,  and  a  later  study 
of  ancient  social  conditions  has  proved  to  me  that  I  made 
some  very  serious  sociological  errors  in  that  paper. 

He  shows  that  in  the  wonderful  development  of 
Japanese  power,  there  is  vitally  no  self-transforma- 
tion. All  that  Japan  is,  she  always  has  been. 
Nor  is  there  any  outward  change.  "The  strength 
of  Japan,  like  the  strength  of  her  ancient  faith, 
needs  little  material  display:  both  exist  where  the 
deepest  real  power  of  any  great  peoples  exists, — 
in  the  Race  Ghost."  He  contrasts  the  noise  and 
confusion  and  vastness  of  Western  cities.  The 
construction  of  the  West  is  endurance;  of  Japan 
impermanency.  The  very  land  is  a  land  of  im- 
permanence.  But  in  this  impermanency  Hearn 
finds  the  greatest  excellence.  He  contrasts  how  lit- 
tle impedimenta  the  Japanese  have — by  that  means 
alone  how  independent  they  are.  He  shows  with 
what  a  quiet  simplicity  Japan  has  become  a  great 
commercial  centre.  He  fears  the  new  Western 
spirit  which  threatens  her: — 

I  confess  to  being  one  of  those  who  believe  that  the 
human  heart,  even  in  the  history  of  a  race,  may  be  worth 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  293 

infinitely  more  than  the  human  intellect,  and  that  it  will 
sooner  or  later  prove  itself  infinitely  better  able  to  answer 
all  the  cruel  enigmas  of  the  Sphinx  of  Life. — I  still  be- 
lieve that  the  old  Japanese  were  nearer  to  the  solution 
of  those  enigmas  than  are  we,  just  because  they  recognized 
moral  beauty  as  greater  than  intellectual  beauty. 

It  is  the  old  spirit  which  found  infinite  meaning — 

in  the  flushed  splendor  of  the  blossom-bursts  of  spring, 
in  the  coming  and  the  going  of  the  cicada?,  in  the  dying 
crimson  of  autumn  foliage,  in  the  ghostly  beauty  of  snow, 
in  the  delusive  motion  of  wave  or  cloud. 

The  beautiful  voice  of  a  blind  peasant  woman  fills 
Hearn  with  gentle  memories  and  an  exquisite 
delight.  He  muses  upon  what  the  meaning  of  this 
charm  can  be;  and  he  realizes  that  it  is  the  old  sor- 
rows and  loving  impulses  of  forgotten  generations. 

The  dead  die  never  utterly.  They  sleep  in  the  darkest 
cells  of  tired  hearts  and  busy  brains, — to  be  startled  at 
rarest  moments  only  by  the  echo  of  some  voice  that  recalls 
their  past. 

The  lovely  spirit  of  showing  only  one's  happiest 
face  to  the  world  is  charmingly  brought  out  in  the 
little  incident  that,  when  in  a  railway  carriage,  a 
Japanese  woman  finds  herself  becoming  drowsy,  be- 
fore she  nods  she  covers  her  face  with  her  long 
kimono  sleeve. 

Sometimes  one  may  recall  the  dead,  and  speak 
with  them.  So  it  happened  that  O-Tayo  heard  once 


294  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

again  the  voice  of  her  little  child  who  begged  her 
not  to  weep  any  more,  for  when  mothers  weep,  the 
flood  of  the  River  of  Tears  rises  so  high  that  the  soul 
cannot  pass,  and  must  wander  and  wander. 

O-Tayo  never  wept  again,  but  softly  she  herself 
became  as  a  little  child.  Her  good  parents  built  a 
tiny  temple  and  fitted  it  with  miniature  ornaments, 
and  here  all  day  long  children  came  to  play  games 
with  her.  And  when  at  last  she  died,  the  children 
still  played  there,  for  as  a  little  girl  of  nine  said, 
"We  shall  still  play  in  the  Court  of  Amida.  She  is 
buried  there.  She  will  hear  us  and  be  happy." 

The  pathetic  tale  of  Haru  gives  an  interesting 
picture  of  the  relation  in  Japan  between  man  and 
wife;  of  the  exquisite  submission  of  the  wife  under 
the  saddest  conditions,  even  to  the  moment  when  the 
little  grieved  heart,  which  has  never  murmured,  has 
the  dying  strength  to  utter  only  the  single  word, 
"Anata."  (Thou.) 

"A  Glimpse  of  Tendencies"  analyzes  many  condi- 
tions in  Japan,  with  various  predictions  for  her 
future,  and  speaks  of  her  lack  of  sympathy  for  her 
foreign  teachers. 

In  "A  Conservative"  Hearn  gives  a  searching 
study  of  how  the  evils  of  our  civilization  appear  to 
a  Japanese  youth. 

"In  the  chapter,  The  Idea  of  Pre-existence/ 
Hearn  makes  the  interesting  attempt  of  bringing  the 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  295 

teachings  of  the  Buddhistic  religion  and  the  con- 
clusions of  modern  science  into  accord.  The  idea 
which  differentiates  the  Oriental  mode  of  thinking 
from  our  own,  which  more  than  any  other  permeates 
the  whole  mental  heing  of  the  Far-East — 'it  is  uni- 
versal as  the  wash  of  air;  it. colors  every  emotion; 
it  influences,  directly  or  indirectly,  almost  every  act' 
— which  inspires  the  utterances  of  the  people,  their 
proverbs,  their  pious  and  profane  exclamations,  that 
is  the  idea  of  pre-existence.  The  expression,  f  Ingwa/ 
which  signifies  the  Karma  as  inevitable  retribution, 
serves  as  explanation  for  all  suffering,  all  pain,  all 
evil.  The  culprit  says:  'That  which  I  did  I  knew 
to  be  wicked  when  doing ;  but  my  ingwa  was  stronger 
than  my  heart.'  Ingwa  means  predestination,  de- 
terminism, necessity."  (395.) 

In  his  chapter  on  "Ancestor- Worship"  it  is  further 
proved  how  important  a  part  of  the  household  are  the 
dead. 

Another  delightful  study  is  "Kimiko," — the  story 
of  one  who  turns  dancing-girl  out  of  filial  piety. 
In  the  height  of  her  fame  she  falls  in  love  with  a 
rich  young  man,  and  he  with  her.  Kimiko  is  so  good 
a  woman  at  heart,  that  the  man's  friends  do  not  ob- 
ject to  his  marrying  her.  She  refuses,  however,  for 
her  life  has  made  her  unworthy  to  be  wife  or  mother. 
The  man  hopes  to  change  her,  but  one  day  she  disap- 
pears and  is  utterly  lost  to  sight.  Years  pass  and  he 


296  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

marries.  At  last  Kimiko  returns  as  a  wandering 
nun,  looks  at  her  lover's  little  son,  whispers  a  mes- 
sage for  the  father  in  his  ear,  and  is  gone  once  more. 
The  grace  with  which  the  story  is  told  is  inimitable, 
and  the  sickly  sentimentality  that  revolts  us  in  the 
Dame  aux  Camelias  is  absent.  (381.) 

GLEANINGS  i isr  BUDDHA-FIELDS*  (10)  is  the  third 
book  of  the  Japanese  period,  and  was  written  at 
Kobe.  In  this  volume  of  essays,  intermingled  with 
sketches  in  lighter  vein,  Hearn  continues  his  philo- 
sophical studies.  There  are  the  unmistakable  signs 
that  even  this  ardor  is  losing  zest.  The  charm  of 
Japan  is  going  fast ;  and  after  this  volume,  until  his 
final  interpretation,  which  is  a  summary  of  all  that 
has  gone  before,  is  reached,  we  find  him  seeking 
material  in  fairy-tales,  legends,  and  even  returning 
to  old  thoughts'  about  the  West  Indian  life. 

Many  of  his  critics  feel  that  Hearn  is  becom- 
ing too  subjective  to  be  quite  trustworthy;  others 
feel  that  he  is  still  too  charmed  by  Japan  to  render 
a  faithful  picture.  A  review  in  Public  Opinion 


"But,  this  feature  of  almost  pardonable  exaggera- 
tion pointed  out,  there  is  little  for  the  critic  to  carp 
at  in  the  majority  of  the  eleven  essays  that  compose 
the  book.  The  opening  paper,  'A  Living  God/  is  a 
perfect  specimen  of  the  author's  style,  and  evinces 

Copyright,  1897,  by  Houghton,  Miffliu  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  297 

in  a  marked  degree  the  influence  of  Oriental  en- 
vironment on  a  sensitive  mind.  It  treats  of  the  tem- 
ples, shrines,  and  worship  of  the  people,  and  tells 
by  legend  how  even  a  living  individual  may  come 
to  be  worshipped  as  a  god  by  his  friends 

"The  essay,  however,  that  Betrays  most  strongly 
the  bent  of  the  author- s  mental  metamorphosis,  and 
one,  we  venture  to  say,  that  will  be  generally  chal- 
lenged is  that  on  'Faces  in  Japanese  Art/  The 
contention  it  embodies,  which  he  boldly  fathers,  is 
a  flat  denial  of  the  truth  and  worth,  of  our  accepted 
schools  of  art, — of  drawing  especially."  (376.) 

Criticising  the  chapters  on  Buddhism  in  the  pres- 
ent book,  the  Athenceum  says: 

"They  are  finely  written,  but  the  Buddhism  is  the 
Buddhism  of  Mr.  Hearn,  not  of  China  or  Japan,  or 
of  anywhere  else.  Nevertheless,  we  think  them  the 
most  attractive  of  these  gleanings.  Laputa  is  placed 
not  very  far  from  Japan;  to  a  quasi-Laputa  Mr. 
Hearn  has  gone,  and  his  Laputian  experiences  are 
more  interesting  than  any  ordinary  terrestrial  ex- 
periences could  have  been."  (298.) 

The  Spectator  says: — 

"His  chapter  on  Nirvana,  which  he  describes  as 
'a  study  in  synthetic  Buddhism'  will  be  read  with 
very  great  interest  by  all  who  care  for  the  problems 
involved.  There  have  been  plenty  of  studies  of  the 
doctrine  of  Nirvana  more  elaborate  and  complete. 


298  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

but  few  more  suggestive  and  more  taking 

Mr.  Hearn  begins  by  combating  the  popular  West- 
ern notion  that  the  idea  of  Nirvana  signifies  to 
Buddhist  minds  complete  annihilation.  The  notion 
is,  he  declares,  erroneous  because  it  contains  only  half 
the  truth,  and  a  half  of  the  truth  which  is  of  no  value 
or  interest  or  intelligibility  except  when  joined  to 
the  other  half.  According  to  Mr.  Hearn,  and,  in- 
deed, according  to  'the  better  opinion'  generally, 
Nirvana  means  not  absolute  nothingness  or  complete 
annihilation  but  only  the  annihilation  of  what  con- 
stitutes individualism  and  personality, — 'the  annihi- 
lation of  everything  that  can  be  included  under  the 
term- 'TV"  (382.) 

Hearn  makes  an  elaborate  study  of  the  varying 
stages  of  births  and  heavens  that  one  must  generally 
pass  through  before  one  rises  into  the  "infinite  bliss" 
of  Nirvana.  The  chapter  closes  with  this  significant 
sentence : — 

The  only  reality  is  One; — all  that  we  have  taken  for 
Substance  is  only  Shadow; — the  physical  is  the  unreal: — 
and  the  outer-man  is  the  ghost. 

There  are  two  short  chapters  devoted  to  the  Japan- 
ese Songs.  The  first  songs,  "Out  of  the  Street,"  are, 
as  Manyemon,  who  would  not  have  the  Western 
people  deceived,  tells  us,  the  vulgar  songs,  or  those 
sung  by  the  washermen,  carpenters,  and  bamboo- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  299 

weavers,  etc.  The  theme  always  holds  some  glint 
of  love.  Hearn  has  arranged  certain  ones  in  three 
groups  forming  a  little  shadow  romance. 

To  Heaven  with  all  my  soul  I  prayed  to  prevent  your 

going; 
Already,  to  keep  you  with  me,  answers  the  blessed  rain. 

Things  never  changed  since  the  Time  of  the  Gods: 
The  flowing  of  water,  the  Way  of  Love. 

The  second  chapter  is  devoted  to  Folk-Songs  with 
Buddhist  allusions.  Nearly  all  the  arts  and  the 
greater  number  of  the  industries  show  the  influence 
of  Buddhism.  A  typical  song  is, — 

Even  the  knot  of  the  rope  tying  our  boats  together 
Knotted  was  long  ago  by  some  love  in  a  former  birth. 

Another, — 

Even    while    praying    together    in    front    of    the    tablets 

ancestral, 
Lovers  find  chance  to  murmur  prayers  never  meant  for 

the  dead. 

On  the  "Trip  to  Kyoto"  there  is  more  to  be 
learned  about  poor  little  Yuko,  who  gave  her  life 
for  her  nation.  To  the  Japanese  all  the  small  de- 
tails of  her  story  are  of  the  greatest  importance,  and 
are  carefully  treasured.  Hearn  thinks  that  the 
Western  "refined  feeling"  might  not  care  for  the 


300  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

poor   little   blood-stained   trifles;    if   so  it  is   to   be 
regretted. 

In  "Dust,"  with  a  dainty  touch,  he  teaches  again 
that  we  are  but  millions  upon  billions  of  dead  peo- 
ple; that  the  cells  and  the  souls  are  themselves  re- 
combinations of  old  welding  of  forces — forces  of 
which  we  know  nothing  save  that  they  belong  "to 
the  Shadow-Makers  of  universes."  You  are  an  in- 
dividual— but  also  you  are  a  population !  This  leads 
on  to  the  end  that 

In  whatsoever  time  all  human  minds  accord  in  thought 
and  will  with  the  mind  of  the  Teacher,  there  shall  not 
remain  even  one  particle  of  dust  that  does  not  enter  into 
Buddhahood. 

The  last  chapter,  "Within  the  Circle,"  is  of  a 
philosophy  so  impermanent  that  it  seems  but 
Shadow-play,  and  one  may  not  behold  a  visible 
form,  for — like  all  that  which  it  symbolizes — it  is 
but  an  illusion. 

EXOTICS  AND  EETEOSPECTivES1  (11)  faithfully 
followed  the  ensuing  year.  The  effort  to  write  is 
manifest;  even  to  himself  Hearn  is  admitting 
that  the  frisson  which  Japan  gave  him  is  passing. 
He  is  beginning  to  make  copy;  and  the  subjects  are 
becoming  more  vague,  vapory,  and  ghostly. 

I  must  eat  some  humble  pie.  My  work  during  the  past 
ten  months  has  been  rather  poor.  Why,  I  cannot  quite 

lCopyright,  1898,  by  Little,  Brown  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          301 

understand — because  it  costs  me  more  effort.  Anyhow, 
I  have  had  to  rewrite  ten  essays:  they  greatly  improved 
under  the  process.  I  am  trying  now  to  get  a  Buddhist 
commentary  for  them — mostly  to  be  composed  of  texts 
dealing  with  pre-existence  and  memory  of  former  lives. 
I  took  for  subjects  the  following: — Beauty  is  Memory — 
why  beautiful  things  bring  sadness; — the  Riddle  of  Touch 
— i.  e.,  the  thrill  that  a  touch  gives; — the  Perfume  of 
Youth ; — the  Reason  of  the  Pleasure  of  the  Feeling  Evoked 
by  Bright  Blue; — the  Pain  Caused  by  Certain  Kinds  of 
Red; — Mystery  of  Certain  Musical  Effects; — Fear  of 
Darkness  and  the  Feeling  of  Dreams.  Queer  subjects, 
are  they  not?  I  think  of  calling  the  collection  "Retro- 
spectives. ' ' 

The  Athenceum,  that  wise  critic,  feels  that  in  this 
book  Hearn  "shows  himself  at  his  best.  He  is 
more  subdued/'  it  says,  "than  is  his  wont,  and  in- 
dulges less  freely  in  excessive  laudation  and  needless 
disparagement.  The  chapters  on  'Insect  Musicians' 
on  the  'Literature  of  the  Dead/  and — oddly  as  it 
may  sound  to  us — on  'Frogs'  are  among  the  most 
delightful  of  all  his  writings.  The  key-note  of  all 
is  struck  in  the  pretty  stanza  that  heads  the  first  of 
the  three: — 

Mushi,  yo  mushi, 
Ndite  ingwa  ga 
Tsukuru  nara? 

(Insect,  0  insect! 
Singing  fulfil  you 
Your  fire-life  and  all  life!) 


302  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

"The  translation  is  ours.  The  fondness  of  the 
Japanese  for  many  kinds  of  chirping  insects,  which 
they  keep  in  little  bamboo-cages,  is  one  of  the  pret- 
tiest of  the  surviving  echoes  of  the  past.  The 
plaintive  little  cry  satisfies  the  curious  melancholy 
that  characterizes  the  reflective  moods  of  the  lieges 
of  Mutsu.  In  the  long  series  of  changes  that  is  to 
end  in  perfect  Buddha-forms,  there  is  hope  always, 
but  always  tinged  with  the  sadness  of  vague  memo- 
ries of  past  pains,  and  the  resigned  dread  of  sorrows 
to  come,  one  knows  not  how  oft  to  be  repeated  ere 
in  'Nirvana'  all  earthly  moods  are  lost.  There  is  a 
regular  trade  in  these  tiny  songsters,  of  the  history 
of  which  Mr.  Hearn  tells  the  pleasant  story."  (299.) 

Hearn  leads  us  to  a  cemetery  in  a  quaint  lone- 
some garden,  and  teaches  us  something  about  the 
wonderful  texts  and  inscriptions  that  are  chiselled 
into  the  stone  of  the  tombs,  or  painted  on  the 
wooden  sotoba,  and  go  to  form  the  important  litera- 
ture of  the  dead.  A  suggestive  sotoba-text  is, — 

The  Amida-Kyo  says: — "All  who  enter  into  that  coun- 
try enter  likewise  into  that  state  of  virtue  from  which 
there  can  be  no  turning  back. " 

From  the  Kaimyo  which  is  engraved  on  the  tomb, 
we  may  select, — 

Kofi,- 

(Bright-Sun-on-the-Way-of-the-Wise,  in  the  Mansion 
of  Luminous  Mind.) 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes 


Kofi,- 

(Effective-Benovolence-Hearing-with-Pure-Heart-the- 
Supplications-of-the-Poor, — dwelling  in  the  Mansion  of 
the  Virtue  of  Pity.) 

The  frog  is  another  favorite  of  the  Japanese. 
There  is  one  special  variety  -called  the  Kajika,  or 
true  singing-frog  of  Japan,  which  is  kept  as  a  pet 
in  a  little  cage.  For  over  a  hundred  years  the  frog 
has  heen  the  subject  of  numerous  poems.  Many  of 
these  little  verses  are  love-poems,  for  the  lovers' 
trysting-hour  is  also  the  hour  when  the  frog-chorus 
is  at  its  height.  Here  is  a  quotation  from  the  An- 
thology called  "Kokinshu ,"  compiled  A.  D.  905,  by 
the  poet  Ki-no-Tsurayuki : 

The  poetry  of  Japan  has  its  roots  in  the  human  heart, 
and  thence  has  grown  into  a  multiform  utterance.  Man 
in  this  world,  having  a  thousand  million  of  things  to 
undertake  and  to  complete,  has  been  moved  to  express 
his  thoughts  and  his  feelings  concerning  all  that  he  sees 
and  hears.  When  we  hear  the  uguisu  singing  among 
flowers,  and  the  voice  of  the  kawazu  which  inhabits  the 
waters,  what  mortal  (lit.:  "who  among  the  living  that 
lives")  does  not  compose  poems? 

A  charming  frog  poem  is, — 

Te  wo  tsuite 

Uta  moshi-aguru, 

Kawazu  kana! 

(With  hand  resting  on  the  ground,  reverentially  you 
repeat  your  poem,  0  frog!) 


304  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

And  another, — 

Tamagawa  no 

Hito  wo  mo  yogisu 

Naku  kawazu, 

Kono  yu  kikeba 

Oshiku  ya  wa  aranu? 

(Hearing  to-night  the  frogs  of  the  Jewel  River — or 
Tamagawa,  that  sing  without  fear  of  man,  how  can  I 
help  loving  the  passing  moment?) 

A  vivid  chapter  is  Hearn's  description  of  his 
ascent  of  Fuji-no-Yama.  Here  he  may  once  again 
use  his  palette  of  many  colors,  but  certainly  not  with 
the  old  abandon. 

Brighter  and  brighter  glows  the  gold.  Shadows  come 
from  the  west, — shadows  flung  by  cloud-pile  over  cloud- 
pile;  and  these,  like  evening  shadows  upon  snow,  are 
violaceous  blue.  .  .  .  Then  orange-tones  appear  in  the 
horizon;  then  smouldering  crimson.  And  now  the  greater 
part  of  the  Fleece  of  Gold  has  changed  to  cotton  again, — 
white  cotton  mixed  with  pink.  .  .  .  Stars  thrill  out. 
The  cloud- waste  uniformly  whitens ; — thickening  and  pack- 
ing to  the  horizon.  The  west  glooms.  Night  rises;  and 
all  things  darken  except  that  wondrous  unbroken  world- 
round  of  white, — the  Sea  of  Cotton. 

A  lurking  of  the  gruesome  flashes  out  when  the 
snow-patches  against  the  miles  of  black  soot  and 
ashes  on  the  mountain  make  him  think  "of  a  gleam 
of  white  teeth  I  once  saw  in  a  skull, — a  woman's 
skull, — otherwise  burnt  to  a  sooty  crisp." 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  305 

"Retrospectives"  is  a  group  of  gentle  reveries, 
where  we  may  muse  with  Hearn  on  such  elusive 
themes  as  the  "Sadness  in  Beauty/'  for  beauty  has 
no  real  existence,  it  is  the  emotion  of  the  dead  within 
us.  Or  there  is  the  analysis  of  that  favorite  word 
frisson,  "the  touch  that  makes  a  thrill  within  you  is 
a  touch  that  you  have  felt  before, — sense-echo  of 
forgotten  intimacies  in  many  unremembered  lives." 
"Azure  Psychology"  and  a  "Bed  Sunset"  recall 
Hearn's  earlier  criticisms  on  color. 

IN  GHOSTLY  JAPAN  (12)1  followed.  The  title  is 
revelatory  of  the  Japan  that  is  to  people  this  book 
and  those  which  are  to  come.  In  the  opening  chap- 
ter Hearn  crystallizes  in  a  powerful  sketch  the 
sum  of  Buddhist  lore.  Of  this  the  Academy 
writes : — 

"Of  Nirvana  one  carries  away  this  one  picture, 
painted  in  words  curiously  colorless  and  intangible — 
the  picture  of  a  mountain  up  whose  steep  side  toil 
two  creatures — the  soul  and  his  guide — toiling,  stum- 
bling upwards  over  a  brittle  and  friable  chaos  of 
skulls.  Skulls  crumbled  into  powder  and  skulls 
crumbling  mark  out  the  road ;  'and  every  skull/  says 
the  guide,  'is  yours,  and  has  been  yours  in  some  past 
incarnation ;  and  the  dust  that  rises  round  your  pres- 
ent body  is  the  dust  of  your  past  and  deserted  bodies 
that  have  served  you  well  or  ill  as  may  be  in  your 

Copyright,  1899,  by  Little,  Brown  and  Company. 


306  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

past  lives.7  In  the  fine  and  bewildering  haze  of  this 
thought  we  lose  our  poet,  and  henceforward  he  is 
not  a  face  nor  a  voice,  but  an  echo  of  a  living  man's 
voice.  We  hear  the  echo,  but  the  voice  we  do  not 
hear.  And  we  grudge  the  voice,  even  to  Nirvana 
where  all  silences  are  merged  in  one."  (286.) 

In  a  beautiful  chapter  Hearn  outlines  all  that 
might  be  written  about  the  important  subject  of 
incense.  He  v  tells  a  good  deal  about  its  religious, 
luxurious,  and  ghostly  uses.  There  is  also  a  charm- 
ing custom  of  giving  parties  where  dainty  games  are 
played  with  it. 

Sometimes  there  can  be  love  between  the  living 
and  the  dead,  or  so  it  appears  in  the  ghostly  story 
of  "A  Passional  Karma,"  or  O-Tsuyu  who  died  of 
love  of  Shinzaburo  and  returns  to  be  his  bride.  Every 
night,  by  the  light  of  their  Peony  Lanterns,  she,  ac- 
companied by  her  maid,  comes  to  keep  the  ghostly 
tryst.  Shinzaburo  does  not  know  that  O-Tsuyu  is 
dead,  but  his  servant  Tomozo,  overhearing  voices, 
gazes  through  a  chink,  and  sees — 

the  face  of  a  woman  long  dead, — and  the  fingers 
caressing  were  fingers  of  naked  bone, — and  of  the  body 
below  the  waist  there  was  not  anything:  it  melted  off 
into  thinnest  trailing  shadow.  Where  the  eyes  of  the 
lover  deluded  saw  youth  and  grace  and  beauty,  there 
appeared  to  the  eyes  of  the  watcher  horror  only,  and  the 
emptiness  of  death. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  307 

Now  tie  whose  bride  is  a  ghost  cannot  live.  No 
matter  what  force  flows  in  his  blood  he  must  certainly 
perish.  Shinzaburo  is  warned  and  an  amulet  to  pro- 
tect him  from  the  dead  is  given  to  him,  but  treachery 
is  played,  and  the  amulet  is  stolen;  so  one  morning 
Tomozo  finds  his  master 

hideously  dead; — and  the  face  was  the  face  of  a  man 
who  had  died  in  the  uttermost  agony  of  fear; — and  lying 
beside  him  in  the  bed  were  the  bones  of  a  woman!  And 
the  bones  of  the  arms,  and  the  bones  of  the  hands,  clung 
fast  about  his  neck. 

The  gentle  heart  of  the  Japanese  shines  in  the 
chapter  on  aBits  of  Poetry."  You  might  find  your- 
self, Hearn  says,  in  a  community  so  poor  that  you 
could  not  even  buy  a  cup  of  real  tea,  but  no  place 
could  you  discover  "where  there  is  nobody  capable 
of  making  a  poem."  Poems  are  written  on  all 
occasions  and  for  all  occasions. 

Poems  can  be  found  upon  almost  any  kind  of  domestic 
utensil; — for  example,  upon  braziers,  iron-kettles,  vases, 
wooden-trays,  lacquer-ware,  porcelains,  chopsticks  of  the 
finer  sort, — even  toothpicks!  Poems  are  painted  upon 
shop-signs,  panels,  screens,  and  fans.  Poems  are  printed 
upon  towels,  draperies,  curtains,  kerchiefs,  silk-linings, 
and  women's  crepe-silk  underwear.  Poems  are  stamped 
or  worked  upon  letter-paper,  envelopes,  purses,  mirror- 
cases,  travelling-bags.  Poems  are  inlaid  upon  enamelled 
Avare,  cut  upon  bronzes,  graven  upon  metal  pipes,  em- 
broidered upon  tobacco-pouches. 


Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


A  Japanese  artist  would  not  think  of  elaborating 
a  sketch,  and  a  poem  to  be  perfect  must  also  only 
stir  one's  fancy.  Ittakkiri,  meaning  "entirely  van- 
ished" in  the  sense  of  "all  told,"  is  a  term  applied 
contemptuously  to  him  who  expresses  all  his  thought. 

Japan  is  rich  in  proverbs.  Hearn  has  translated 
one  hundred  examples  of  Buddhist  proverbs. 

Karu-toki  no  Jizo-gao;  nasu-toki  no  Emma-gao. 

(Borrowing-time,  the  face  of  Jizo;  repaying-time,  the 
face  of  Emma.) 

Sode  no  furi-awase  mo  tasho  no  en. 

(Even  the  touching  of  sleeves  in  passing  is  caused  by 
some  relation  in  a  former  life.) 

A  powerful  relic  of  the  old  clinging  love  of  the 
gruesome  is  the  story  of  Ingwa-banashi.  The 
daimyos  wife  knew  that  she  was  dying;  and  she 
thought  of  many  things,  especially  of  her  husband's 
favorite,  the  Lady  Yukiko,  who  was  nineteen  years 
old.  She  begged  her  husband  to  send  for  the  Lady 
Yukiko,  whom,  she  said,  she  loved  as  a  sister.  After 
the  dying  wife  had  told  Lady  Yukiko  it  was  her  wish 
that  she  should  become  the  wife  of  their  dear  lord, 
she  begged  that  Yukiko  would  carry  her  on  her  back 
to  see  the  cherry-bloom. 

As  a  nurse  turns  her  back  to  a  child,  that  the  child 
may  cling  to  it,  Yukiko  offered  her  shoulders  to  the  wife, 
and  said: — 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  309 

1 1  Lady,  I  am  ready :  please  tell  me  how  I  best  can  help 
you. ' ' 

"Why,  this  way!"  responded  the  dying  woman,  lift- 
ing herself  with  an  almost  superhuman  effort  by  clinging 
to  Yukiko  's  shoulders.  But  as  she  stood  erect,  she  quickly 
slipped  her  thin  hands  down  over  the  shoulders,  under 
the  robe,  and  clutched  the  breasts  of  the  girl,  and  burst 
into  a  wicked  laugh. 

'  "  I  have  my  wish ! ' '  she  cried — ' '  I  have  my  wish 
for  the  cherry-bloom,  but  not  the  cherry-bloom  of  the 
garden!  ...  I  could  not  die  before  I  got  my  wish. 
Now  I  have  it!— oh,  what  a  delight!" 

And  with  these  words  she  fell  forward  upon  the  crouch- 
ing girl,  and  died. 

When  the-  attendants  tried  to  lift  the  body  from 
Yukiko's  shoulders,  they  found  that  the  hands  of  the 
dead  had  grown  into  the  quick  flesh  of  the  breasts  of 
the  girl.  And  they  could  not  be  removed.  A  skilful 
physician  was  called,  and  he  decided  that  the  hands 
could  be  amputated  only  at  the  wrists,  and  so  this  was 
done.  But  the  hands  still  clung  to  the  breasts ; 
and  there  they  soon  darkened  and  dried  up  like  the 
hands  of  a  person  long  dead. 

Yet  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  horror. 

Withered  and  bloodless  though  they  seemed,  those  hands 
were  not  dead.  At  intervals  they  would  stir — stealthily, 
like  great  grey  spiders.  And  nightly  thereafter, — begin- 
ning always  at  the  Hour  of  the  Ox, — they  would  clutch 
and  compress  and  tortue.  Only  at  the  Hour  of  the  Tiger 
the  pain  would  cease. 

Yukiko  cut  off  her  hair,  and  became  a  mendicant-nun. 


310  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Every  day  she  prayed  to  the  dead  for  pardon,  and 
every  night  the  tortue  was  renewed.  This  continued 
for  more  than  seventeen  years  until  Yukiko  was  heard 
of  no  more. 

SHADOwiiras1  (13)  appeared  the  next  year,  1900. 
Of  this  volume  the  Bookman  says : — 

"He  gives  us  several  essays  upon  matters  Japa- 
nesque, which  obviously  involve  no  small  amount  of 
erudition  and  patient  research.  Such  are  his  papers 
upon  the  various  species  of  Semi,,  or  Japanese  sing- 
ing-locusts, and  on  the  complicated  etiquette  of 
Japanese  female  names.  But  the  distinctive  feature 
of  this  volume  is  the  first  half,  which  is  given  up  to 
a  collection  of  curious  tales  by  native  writers,  weird, 
uncanny,  little  stories,  most  of  them,  of  ghouls  and 
wraiths,  and  vampires,  or  at  least  the  nearest  Japa- 
nese equivalents  for  such  Occidental  spectres." 
(316.) 

The  Athenceum  does  not  find  "Shadowings"  equal 
to  the  volume  "Exotics."  It  thinks  that  Hearn  is 
"perilously  near  exhausting  his  repertory  of  Kokin 
[one-stringed  fiddle]  themes." 

"The  stories  with  which  the  present  volume  opens 
have  no  particular  merit:  they  have  lost  their  chief 
and  real  advantage — their  local  color — in  Hearn- 
esque  translation,  and  seem  to  be  little  more  than 
suggestions  or  drafts  of  'nouvelles,'  out  of  which 

Copyright,  1900,  by  Little,  Brown  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  311 

skilful  hands  might  perhaps  have  made  something 
much  better.  A  good  example  is  the  story  of  the 
Screen  Maiden,  which  is  a  most  lame  presentment 
of  a  charming  motif.  The  chapters  on  female  names, 
on  semi,  couplets  and  'Old  Japanese  Songs'  are  more 
interesting,  but  only  to  those  who  possess  a  consid- 
erable knowledge  of  old  Japanese  life  and  literature. 
....  Of  the  'Old  Japanese  Songs' — where  is  the 
proof  of  their  antiquity? — much  the  best  is  the 
dance-ballad  of  the  dragon-maid,  who  bewitched  a 
yamabushi,  and  chased  him  over  moor  and  hill  and 
river,  until  the  temple  of  Do  jo  was  reached,  under 
the  great  bell  of  which  the  trembling  hill-warrior 
or  outlaw  (yamabushi  were  such  originally  in  all 
probability)  hid  himself,  whereupon  the  dragon- 
maid  wrapped  her  body  round  the  bell  once  and 
again  and  the  third  time  the  bell  melted  and  flowed 
away  like  boiling  water.  And  with  it,  according  to 
the  legend,  flowed  away  the  ashes  of  the  unwilling 
object  of  the  dragon-maid's  affections,  consumed  not 
through  love,  but  through  disdain."  (300.) 

Strange  things  happen  in  the  group  of  tales,  and 
not  the  least  is  the  tale  of  the  maiden  in  the  screen 
whose  loveliness  so  bewitches  a  youth  that  he  be- 
comes sick  unto  death.  Then  an  old  scholar  tells 
him  that  the  person  whom  the  picture  represents  is 
dead,  but  since  the  painter  painted  her  mind  as  well 
as  her  form,  her  spirit  lives  in  the  picture  and  he 
may  yet  win  her. 


312  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

So  every  day,  Tokkei,  following  out  the  old 
scholar's  injunctions,  sits  before  the  portrait  calling 
softly  the  maiden's  name.  And  finally  after  many 
days  the  maiden  answered,  "Hal!"  And  stepping 
down  from  out  the  screen,  she  kneels  to  take  the  cup 
of  wine  (which  was  to  be  so),  whispering  charm- 
ingly, "How  could  you  love  me  so  much  ?" 

Also  there  is  the  tale  of  the  Corpse  Rider,  in  which 
the  husband  had  to  ride  for  one  whole  night,  so  far 
that  he  could  not  know  the  distance,  the  dead  body 
of  his  divorced  wife;  and  this  was  to  save  him  from 
her  vengeance. 

The  gruesome  gleams  here,  and  again  in  the  tale 
of  "The  Reconciliation,"  when  the  repentant  hus- 
band found  that  the  wife  he  was  holding  in  his  arms 
is  "a  corpse  so  wasted  that  little  remained  save  the 
bones,  and  the  long  black  tangled  hair." 

There  is  no  small  amount  of  etiquette  in  the  pre- 
fixes and  suffixes  of  the  Japanese  female  names. 
The  majority  of  the  Yobina,  or  personal  names,  are 
not  esthetic.  Some  are  called  after  the  flowers,  and 
there  are  also  place  names,  as  for  instance  Mine 
(Peak)  Hama  (Shore)  ;  but  the  large  proportion  ex- 
press moral  or  mental  attributes. 

Tenderness,  kindness,  deftness,  cleverness,  are  fre- 
quently represented  by  yobina;  but  appellations  implying 
physical  charm,  or  suggesting  aesthetic  ideas  only,  are  com- 
paratively uncommon.  One  reason  for  the  fact  may  be 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          313 

that  very  aesthetic  names  are  given  to  geisha  and  to  joro, 
and  consequently  vulgarized.  But  the  chief  reason  cer- 
tainly is  that  the  domestic  virtues  still  occupy  in  the  Japa- 
nese moral  estimate  a  place  not  less  important  than  that 
accorded  to  religious  faith  in  the  life  of  our  own  Middle 
Ages.  Not  in  theory  only,  but  in  every-day  practice, 
moral  beauty  is  placed  far  above  physical  beauty;  and 
girls  are  usually  selected  as  wives,  not  for  their  good 
looks,  but  for  their  domestic  qualities. 

I  give  a  few  names  gleaned  from  Hearn's  lists: 
0-Jun  —  "Faithf  ul-to-death" ;  0-Tame  —  "For-the- 
sake-of", — a  name  suggesting  unselfishness;  0-Chika 
—"Closely  Dear";  0-Suki — "The  Beloved"— A imee; 
0-Tae— "the  Exquisite";  ToUwa— "Eternally  Con- 
stant". 

From  the  "Fantasies,"  we  read  of  the  Mystery  of 
Crowds,  and  the  horrors  of  Gothic  Architecture,  the 
joys  of  levitation  while  one  is  asleep — with  a  moral 
attached;  of  Noctilucse.  Also,  as  we  gaze  with  the 
adolescent  youth  into  a  pair  of  eyes  we  come  to  know 
that 

The  splendor  of  the  eyes  that  we  worship  belongs  to 
them  only  as  brightness  to  the  morning-star.  It  is  a 
reflex  from  beyond  the  shadow  of  the  Now, — a  ghost- 
light  of  vanished  suns.  Unknowingly  within  that  maiden- 
gaze  we  meet  the  gaze  of  eyes  more  countless  than  the 
hosts  of  heaven, — eyes  otherwhere  passed  into  darkness 
and  dust. 

Thus,  and  only  thus,  the  depth  of  that  gaze  is  the  depth 
of  the  Sea  of  Death  and  Birth,  and  its  mystery  is  the 


314  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

World-Soul's  vision,  watching  us  out  of  the  silent  vast  of 
the  Abyss  of  Being. 

Thus,  and  only  thus,  do  truth  and  illusion  mingle  in 
the  magic  of  eyes, — the  spectral  past  suffusing  with  charm 
ineffable  the  apparition  of  the  present; — and  the  sudden 
splendor  in  the  soul  of  the  Seer  is  but  a  flash,  one  sound- 
less sheet-lightning  of  the  Infinite  Memory. 

A  JAPANESE  MISCELLANY*  (14)  was  the  next  book. 
What  does  the  memory  hold  of  these  stories  and 
sketches?  Surely  that  picture  of  Old  Japan  with 
its  charming  sentiment  for  Dragon-flies,  to  which 
such  delicate  poems  were  written. 

Tombo  no 
Ha-ura  ni  sabishi, — 

Aki-shigure. 

(Lonesomely  clings  the  dragon-fly  to  the  under-side  of 
the  leaf — Ah!  the  autumn-rains!) 

And  that  verse  by  the  mother  poet,  who  seeing 
many  children  playing  their  favorite  pastime  of 
chasing  butterflies,  thinks  of  her  little  one  who  is 

dead : — 

Tombo-tsuri!— 
Kyo  wa  doko  made 

Itta  yara! 

(Catching  dragon-flies!  ...  I  wonder  where  he  has 
gone  to-day!) 

Then  there  are  the  children's  songs  about  Nature 
and  her  tiny  creatures,  and  all  their  little  songs  for 
Copyright,  1901,  by  Little,  Brown  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  315 

their  plays;  the  songs  which  tell  a  story,  and  the 
sweet  mother  songs  that  lull  the  babies  to  sleep. 

How  we  pity  poor  misguided  O-Dai,  who  forgot 
loyalty  to  her  ancestors  to  follow  the  teachings  of 
the  "Western  faith.  At  its  bidding  even  the  sacred 
tablets  and  the  scroll  were  cast  away.  And  when  she 
had  forsaken  everything,  and  had  become  as  an  out- 
cast with  her  own  people,  the  good  missionaries  found 
they  needed  a  more  capable  assistant.  Poor  little  weak 
O-Dai,  without  the  courage  to  fill  her  sleeves  with 
stones  and  then  slip  into  the  river,  longing  for  the 
sunlight,  and  so  "flung  into  the  furnace  of  a  city's 
lust." 

We  hear  the  gruesome  tinkle  of  the  dead  wife's 
warning  bell,  and  we  certainly  shudder  before  the 
vision  of  her  robed  in  her  grave-shroud : — 

" Eyeless  she  came, — because  she  had  long  been  dead; 
— and  her  loosened  hair  streamed  down  about  her  face; — 
and  she  looked  without  eyes  through  the  tangle  of  it ;  and 
spake  without  a  tongue. " 

Then  the  hideous  horror  of  the  evil  crime,  as  this 
dead  wife  in  her  jealousy  tore  off  the  head  of  the 
sleeping  young  wife.  The  terrified  husband  follow- 
ing the  trail  of  blood  found 

a  nightmare-thing  that  chippered  like  a  bat:  the  figure 
of  the  long-buried  woman  erect  before  her  tomb, — in  one 
hand  clutching  a  bell,  in  the  other  the  dripping  head. 
.  .  .  For  a  minute  the  three  stood  numbed.  Then 


316  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

one  of  the  men-at-arms,  uttering  a  Buddhist  invocation, 
drew,  and  struck  at  the  shape.  Instantly  it  crumbled  down 
upon  the  soil, — an  empty  scattering  of  grave-rags,  bones, 
and  hair; — and  the  bell  rolled  clanking  out  of  the  ruin. 
But  the  fleshless  right  hand,  though  parted  from  the  wrist, 
still  writhed;  and  its  fingers  still  gripped  at  the  bleeding 
head, — and  tore,  and  mangled, — as  the  claws  of  the  yel- 
low crab  fast  to  a  fallen  fruit. 

Who  but  Hearn  would  have  chosen  this  ghastly 
scene,  and  described  it  with  such  terrible  reality? 

With  the  parents  we  have  unravelled  the  mystery 
of  Kinume,  whose  spirit  belonged  to  one  family,  and 
whose  body  was  the  child  of  the  other. 

Perhaps  we  still  see  the  famous  picture  of  Kwashin 
Koji,  which  had  a  soul,  for  "it  is  well  known  that 
some  sparrows,  painted  upon  a  sliding  screen 
(fusuma)  by  Hogen  Yenshin,  once  flew  away,  leav- 
ing blank  the  spaces  which  they  had  occupied  upon 
the  surface.  Also  it  is  well  known  that  a  horse 
painted  upon  a  certain  Kakemono,  used  to  go  out  at 
night  to  eat  grass."  So  the  water  in  the  picture  on 
the  screen  of  Kwashin  overflowed  into  the  room,  and 
the  boat  thereon  glided  forth,  but  not  a  ripple  from 
the  oar  was  heard.  Then  Kwashin  Koji  climbed  into 
the  boat,  and  it  receded  into  the  picture,  and  the 
water  dried  in  the  room.  Over  the  painted  water 
slipped  the  painted  vessel  until  all  disappeared,  and 
Kwashin  was  heard  of  no  more. 


- 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  317 

And  we  remember  too  the  strange  brave  way  that 
Umetsu  Chubei  won  the  gift  of  great  strength  for 
his  children,  and  their  children's  children. 

The  Athenceum  finds  the  story  of  Kwashin  the  best 
of  this  collection.  Speaking  of  the  study,  aOn  a 
Bridge/'  it  says: — 

"The  author  narrates  a  personal  experience  of  a 
riksha  man  who  drew  him  across  an  old  bridge  near 
Kumamoto.  It  was  in  the  time  of  the  Satsuma  muhon 
(rebellion),  some  twenty-two  years  earlier,  that  the 
Kurumaya  (riksha  man)  was  stopped  on  the  bridge 
by  three  men,  who  were  dressed  as  peasants,  but  had 
very  long  swords  under  their  raincoats.  After  a  time 
a  cavalry  officer  came  along  from  the  city. 

The  moment  the  horse  got  on  the  bridge  the  three  men 
turned  and  leaped: — and  one  caught  the  horse's  bridle; 
and  another  gripped  the  officer's  arm;  and  the  third  cut 
off  his  head — all  in  a  moment.  ...  I  never  saw  any- 
thing done  so  quickly. 

"The  seeming  peasants  then  waited,  and  presently 
another  cavalry  officer  came  and  was  murdered  in 
like  manner.  Then  came  a  third,  who  met  a  similar 
fate.  Lastly,  the  peasants  went  away,  having  thrown 
the  bodies  into  the  river,  but  taking  the  heads  with 
them.  The  man  had  never  mentioned  the  matter 
till  long  after  the  war — why?  'Because  it  would 
have  been  ungrateful.' 

"No  doubt  this  is  a  true  story."      (301.) 


318  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

It  was  probably  during  the  ensuing  year  that 
Hearn  contributed  to  the  Japanese  Fairy  Tale  Series 
(15),  published  in  Tokyo,  his  renditions  of  four  of 
these  stories.  On  page  121  two  are  reprinted. 

KoTTo1  (16)  followed.     Says  the  Athenceum: — 

"The  gem  of  this  volume  is  'A  Woman's  Diary' 
purporting  to  be  'the  history  of  a  woman's  married 
life  recorded  by  herself,  found  in  a  small  Jiaribako 
(work-box)  which  had  belonged  to  her.'  It  is  an 
ordinary  story,  not  in  the  least  sensational,  yet  piti- 
ful and  even  touching  in  its  record  of  poverty  and 
suffering,  showing  the  hardships  and  small  enjoy- 
ment— according  to  our  notions,  at  least — of  the 
colorless  existence  led  by  the  bulk  of  the  Japanese 
poorer  classes  upon  a  total  family  wage  of  twelve 
pounds  a  year  or  less."  (302.) 

Except  for  "A  Woman's  Diary"  and  "Fireflies," 
the  tales  in  "Kotto"  are  fragmentary.  Some  are 
gruesome  as  the  history  of  the  Gaki;  or  as  the  story 
of  O-Katsu-San,  who  was  so  bold  as  to  go  by  night 
to  Yurei-Daki,  and  who  to  win  her  bet  brought  back 
the  little  money-box  of  the  gods.  But  when  she 
came  to  give  her  baby  his  milk, — 

Out  of  the  wrappings  unfastened  there  fell  to  the  floor 
a  blood-soaked  bundle  of  baby  clothes  that  left  exposed 
two  very  small  brown  feet,  and  two  very  small  brown 
hands — nothing  more. 

The  child's  head  had  been  torn  off! 

Copyright,  1902,  by  the  Macmillan  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  819 

There  is  also  the  story  of  0-Kame,  who  returned 
each  night  to  haunt  her  husband;  of  Chugoro,  who 
was  bewitched  by  a  beautiful  woman  whom  he  mar- 
ried beneath  the  waters.  But  he  sickened  and  died, 
for  his  blood  had  been  drained  by  his  Circe,  who  was 
"simply  a  Frog, — a  great  and  ugly  Frog!" 

The  literature  and  the  significance  of  the  fire-flies 
holds  an  important  place  with  the  Japanese,  and  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years  the  poets  have  been  mak- 
ing verses  about  these  little  creatures. 

A  sketch  in  which  Hearn  is  most  fortunate  is 
"Pathological,"  where  Tama,  the  mother-cat,  dreams 
of  her  dead  kittens — 

coos  to  them,  and  catches  for  them  small  shadowy  things, 
— perhaps  even  brings  to  them,  through  some  dim  window 
of  memory,  a  sandal  of  ghostly  straw.  . 

Beautiful  is  the  "Revery  of  Mother-Love" : — 
Yet  those  countless  solar  fires,  with  their  viewless  mil- 
lions of  living  planets,  must  somehow  reappear:  again 
the  wondrous  Cosmos,  self-born  as  self-consumed,  must 
resume  its  sidereal  whirl  over  the  deeps  of  the  eternities. 
And  the  love  that  strives  forever  with  death  shall  rise 
again,  through  fresh  infinitudes  of  pain,  to  renew  the 
everlasting  battle. 

The  light  of  the  mother's  smile  will  survive  our  sun; — 
the  thrill  of  her  kiss  will  last  beyond  the  thrilling  of  stars ; 
— the  sweetness  of  her  lullaby  will  endure  in  the  cradle- 
songs  of  worlds  yet  unevolved; — the  tenderness  of  her 
faith  will  quicken  the  fervor  of  prayers  to  be  made  to  the 


320  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

hosts  of  another  heaven,  —  to  the  gods  of  a  time  beyond 
Time.  And  the  nectar  of  her  breasts  can  never  fail:  that 
snowy  stream  will  still  flow  on,  to  nourish  the  life  of  some 
humanity  more  perfect  that  our  own,  when  the  Milky 
Way  that  spans  our  night  shall  have  vanished  forever 
out  of  Space. 

Like  unto  the  Soul  is  a  Drop  of  Dew  for 
Your  personality  signifies,  in  the  eternal  order,  just  as 
much  as  the  especial  motion  of  molecules  in  the  shivering 
of  any  single  drop.  Perhaps  in  no  other  drop  will  the 
thrilling  and  the  picturing  be  ever  exactly  the  same;  but 
the  dews  will  continue  to  gather  and  to  fall,  and  there  will 
always  be  quivering  pictures.  .  .  .  The  very  delusion 
of  delusions  is  the  idea  of  death  as  loss. 


(17")  was  the  book  before  "Japan", 
which  was  published  after  Hearn's  death.  It  is  a 
collection  of  old  stories,  many  of  them  of  the  grue- 
some, and  of  careful  studies  of  ants,  mosquitoes, 
and  butterflies.  Striking  is  the  tale  of  Yuki-Onna, 
the  snow-woman,  as  is  also  the  incident  of  Biki-Baka. 
One  bewitched  by  the  dead  is  Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi, 
whose  ears  were  torn  off  because  the  holy  texts 
which  were  written  everywhere  else  upon  his  body 
were  there  forgotten.  Son  jo,  the  hunter,  killed  the 
mate  of  a  female  oshidori,  who  after  appearing  to 
him  in  a  dream  as  a  beautiful  woman,  who  rebukes 
him  the  following  day  as  a  bird,  tears  open  her 
body,  and  dies  before  his  eyes.  O-Tei  is  reborn  in 
Copyright,  1904,  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          321 

the  shape  of  a  woman  that  she  may  wed  years  later 
her  promised  husband — Nagao  Chose  i  of  Echigo. 
So  loyal  is  the  love  of  O-Sode,  the  milk-nurse,  that 
the  cherry-tree  which  is  planted  in  commemoration 
of  her,  on  the  anniversary  of  her  death,  blossoms 
in  a  wonderful  way.  Because  of  his  selfish  wicked- 
ness in  thinking  only  of  the  gains  in  his  profession, 
a  priest  was  made  to  be  reborn  into  the  state  of  a 
jifcininki,  who  had  to  devour  the  corpses  of  people 
who  died  in  his  district.  Other  devourers  of  human 
flesh  are  the  Rokuro-Kubi.  The  head  of  a  Rokuro- 
Kubi  separates  itself  from  its  body. 

JAPAN1  (18)  :  AN  ATTEMPT  AT  INTEBPRETATION 
is  the  last  book  that  Hearn  published.  He  was 
reading  its  proofs  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Al- 
though a  posthumous  volume  appeared,  this  may 
rightly  be  termed  his  final  word.  It  is  the  crystalli- 
zation and  the  summary  of  all  that  has  been  said 
before.  It  contains  a  group  of  twenty-one  lectures, 
which  Hearn  had  expected  at  first  to  deliver  at  Cor- 
nell University.  His  own  words  will  best  reveal 
their  import : — 

They  will  form  a  book  explaining  Japan  from  the  stand- 
point of  ancestor-worship.  They  are  suited  only  to  a  culti- 
vated audience. 

The  substantial  idea  of  the  lectures  is  that  Japanese 
society  represents  the  condition  of  ancient  Greek  society 

1Copyright,  1904,  by  the  Macmillan  Company. 


322  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

a  thousand  years  before  Christ.  I  am  treating  of  relig- 
ious Japan, — not  of  artistic  or  economical  Japan  except 
by  way  of  illustration. 

"The  history  of  Japan  is  really  the  history  of  her 
religion/'  is  the  key  to  the  book. 

The  Academy  remarks: — 

"No  one  who  wishes  to  understand  the  possibilities 
of  the  future  of  Japan,  can  afford  to  neglect  the  past, 
and  no  one  who  would  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  past 
can  afford  to  neglect  Mr.  Hearn' s  fine  and  thoughtful 
work."  (288.) 

In  a  review  Mr.  Griffis  says: — 

"They  felt  that  he  had  done  his  best  and  was  de- 
generating. Yet  here  is  a  work  which  is  a  classic  in 
science,  a  wonder  of  interpretation.  It  is  the  product 
of  long  years  of  thought,  of  keenest  perception,  or 
marvellous  comprehension. 

"One  cannot  quote,  one  must  read  this  work.  It 
shows  the  Japanese  under  his  armor,  modern  science. 
The  Japanese,  outwardly,  are  ruled  by  treaties, 
diplomacy,  governments,  codes,  Imperial  Diet,  armies 
and  battleships — all  modern  and  external.  Inwardly 
they — that  is,  forty-nine  millions  of  them — are  gov- 
erned by  ghosts.  The  graveyard  is  the  true  dictator. 
It  is  ever  their  'illustrious  ancestors'  who  achieve 
victories.  They,  as  a  nation,  are  superbly  organized 
for  war.  There  is  no  originality,  no  personality, 
no  individuality  worth  speaking  of  in  the  island 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          323 

empire.  It  is  all  done  by  the  government,  the  com- 
munity. In  social  evolution  the  Japanese  are  even 
yet  far  behind  the  Romans,  and  much  as  the  pre- 
Homeric  Greeks. 

"In  a  word,  Lafcadio  Hearn  outdoes  the  mission- 
aries in  dogmatism,  exceeds*  even  the  hostile  prop- 
agandist in  telling  the  naked  truth.  Devoted  friend 
of  Japan,  he  excels  the  sworn  enemies  of  her  religions 
in  laying  bare,  though  with  admiration,  the  realities. 
....  Lafcadio  Hearn  turns  the  white  and  search- 
ing beams  on  the  ship  and  man "His 

book  is  a  re-reading  of  all  Japanese  history,  a  socio- 
logical appraisement  of  the  value  of  Japanese  civili- 
zation, and  a  warning  against  intolerant  propaganda 
of  any  sort  whatever.  This  book  is  destined  to  live, 
and  to  cause  searchings  of  heart  among  those,  who 
imagine  that  the  Japanese  soul  has  been  changed  in 
fifty  years."  (326.) 

From  the  Spectator  I  q.uote: — 

"Both  the  prose  and  poetry  of  Japanese  life  are 
infused  into  Mr.  Hearn's  charming  pages.  Nobody 
so  far  as  we  know,  has  given  a  better  description  of 
the  fascination  which  Japanese  life  has  at  first  for 
such  as  enter  into  its  true  spirit,  and  of  its  gradual 
disappearance.  ...  Of  course  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  this  charm  of  Japan  was  something 
more  than  a  beautiful  mirage.  'Old  Japan/  in  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Hearn,  'came  nearer  to  the  achieve- 


324  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

ment  of  the  highest  moral  ideal  than  our  far  more 
evolved  societies  can  hope  to  do  for  many  a  hundred 
years.'  Curiously  enough,  it  was  under  the  shadow 
of  the  sword  that  the  fascinating  life  of  Japan  ma- 
tured; universal  politeness  was  nurtured  by  the 
knowledge  that  any  act  of  rudeness  might,  and  prob- 
ably would,  cause  a  painful  and  immediate  death. 
This  supremacy  of  the  sword,  governed  by  the  noble 
rule  of  'bushi-do,  hardened  the  Japanese  temper  into 
the  wonderful  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  patriotism 
which  is  now  making  itself  apparent  in  the  stress  of 
war.  All  this  is  admirably  portrayed  in  Mr.  Hearn's 
pages, — the  swan-song  of  a  very  striking  writer." 
(383.) 

In  The  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  there  is  a 
review  of  this  book,  by  Edmund  Buckley  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  which  is  so  admirable  and  in- 
clusive that  I  have  obtained  Professor  Buckley's  kind 
permission  to  quote  it  in  its  entirety.  This  review 
leaves  small  margin  for  further  comment.  But  it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  space  will  not  permit  citations  of 
Hearn's  tributes  to  the  Japanese  home,  woman  and 
character. 

aOn  p.  160  of  W.  E.  Griffis'  'The  Mikado's 
Empire,'  is  textual  evidence  that,  so  late  as  1876,  in- 
telligent men,  and  theologians  at  that — rather,  in 
sooth,  because  they  are  theologians — could  harbor 
such  atrocious  notions  about  Shintoism,  the  ethnic 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes          325 

faith  of  the  Japanese,  as  the  following:  'Shinto  is 
in  no  proper  sense  of  the  term  a  religion.  ...  In 
its  lower  forms  it  is  blind  obedience  to  governmental 
and  priestly  dictates.'  The  present  reviewer  bears 
these  Christian  apologists  and  heathen  defamers 
'witness  that  they  have  a  zeal'for  God,  but  not  accord- 
ing to  knowledge.'  They  wrote  in  the  days  when 
hierology  (comparative  religion)  was  still  inchoate, 
for  C.  P.  Tide's  'Elements'  did  not  appear  in  its 
English  dress  until  1877;  and  when  Japan's  abase- 
ment before  the  'Christian'  powers  was  complete,  and 
therefore  everything  Japanese  assumed  to  be  worth- 
less. But  the  reaction  came,  of  course,  and  is  now 
pretty  well  completed.  Japan's  novel  yet  glorious 
art  conquered  the  world;  Japan's  new  yet  ever- 
victorious  army  has  conquered  Russia's  imposing 
array;  and  now  Mr.  Hearn  completely  routs  the 
contemners  of  a  people's  sincere  faith.  The  con- 
sensus of  hierologists  that  no  people  was  ever  found 
without  a  religion  had  already  been  given;  and  the 
creed,  cult,  and  ethics  of  Shintoism  had  been  cor- 
rectly described;  but  it  remained  for  Mr.  Hearn  to 
give  a  more  complete  and  intimate  account  than  had 
previously  been  done  of  the  ancestorism  in  Shinto 
and  of  its  profound  influence  upon  politics  and  mor- 
ality. 

"It  will  surprise  no  one  to  learn  that  Mr.  Hearn 
overdid  his  contention,  just  because  such  excess  is  the 


326  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

well-nigh  inevitable  reaction  from  the  underestimate 
that  he  found  current  and  sought  to  correct.  As  he 
states  the  case  on  p.  4:  'Hitherto  the  subject  of 
Japanese  religion  has  been  written  of  chiefly  by  the 
sworn  enemies  of  that  religion ;  by  others  it  has  been 
almost  entirely  ignored.7  But  now  that  'see-saw'  has 
followed  'see/  we  may  hope  to  win  a  final  equilibrium 
of  correct  appreciation.  To  this  end  several  cor- 
rections are  called  for;  but,  before  they  are  made, 
clearness  will  be  secured  by  a  concise  analysis  of  the 
treatise;  for  in  its  course  religion,  politics,  and  mor- 
ality are  interwoven  on  a  historic  warp.  The  entire 
fabric  runs  about  as  follows:  (Chap.  3.)  The  real 
religion  of  the  Japanese  is  ancestorism,  which  showed 
in  three  cults :  the  domestic,  the  communal,  and  the 
state.  The  domestic  arose  first,  but  the  primitive 
family  might  include  hundreds  of  households. 
Ancestorism  in  Japan  confirms  Spencer's  exposition 
of  religious  origins.  The  greater  gods  were  all 
evolved  from  ghost-cults.  Good  men  made  good  gods ; 
bad  men,  bad  ones.  (Chap.  4.)  The  domestic  cult 
began  in  offerings  of  food  and  drink  made  at  the 
grave;  then,  under  Chinese  influence,  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  home  before  tablets ;  where  it  was  main- 
tained until  this  present  by  Buddhism.  Thin  tablets 
of  white  wood,  inscribed  with  the  names  of  the  dead, 
are  placed  in  a  miniature  wooden  shrine,  which  is 
kept  upon  a  shelf  in  some  inner  chamber.  Tiny 


Appreciations  and  Eptiomes  327 

offerings  of  food,  accompanied  with  brief  prayer, 
must  be  made  each  day  by  some  member  of  the 
household  in  behalf  of  all;  for  the  blessed  dead  still 
need  sustenance,  and  in  return  can  guard  the  house. 
The  Buddhist  rite,  however,  made  prayer,  not  to,  but 
for  these  dead.  The  Japanese  scholar  Hirata  is  cor- 
rect when  he  declares  the  worship  of  ancestors  to  be 
the  mainspring  of  all  virtues.  (Chap.  5.)  The 
family  was  united  only  by  religion.  The  father — 
not  the  mother — was  supposed  to  be  the  life-giver, 
and  was  therefore  responsible  for  the  cult.  Hence 
the  inferior  position  of  woman.  The  ancestral  ghost 
of  an  uji,  or  family  of  several  households,  became 
later  the  ujigami,  or  local  tutelar  god.  Subordina- 
tion of  young  to  old,  of  females  to  males,  and  of  the 
whole  family  to  its  chief,  who  was  at  once  ruler  and 
priest,  shows  that  the  family  organization  was  re- 
ligious and  not  marital.  Both  monogamy  and  the 
practice  of  parents  selecting  their  child's  spouse  arose 
because  best  accordant  with  religion.  Later  custom 
makes  the  decision,  not  of  the  father  alone,  but  of 
the  household  and  kindred,  determinative  of  any 
important  step. 

"(Chap.  6.)  The  communal  cult  of  the  district 
ruled  the  family  in  all  its  relations  to  the  outer 
world.  The  ujigami,  or  clan-god,  was  the  spirit 
rather  of  a  former  ruler  than  of  a  common  ancestor. 
Hochiman  was  a  ruler,  but  Kasuga  an  ancestor.  Be- 


328  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

side  the  uji  temple  of  a  district,  there  may  be  a  more 
important  one  dedicated  to  some  higher  deity.  Every 
ujiTco  or  parishioner  is  taken  to  the  ujigami  when  one 
month  old  and  dedicated  to  him.  Thereafter  he  at- 
tends the  temple  festivals,  which  combine  fun  with 
piety;  and  he  makes  the  temple  groves  his  play- 
ground. Grown  up,  he  brings  his  children  here ;  and, 
if  ne  leaves  home,  pays  his  respects  to  the  god  on 
leaving  and  returning.  Thus  the  social  bond  of  each 
community  was  identical  with  the  religious  bond,  and 
the  cult  of  the  ujigami  embodied  the  moral  experience 
of  the  community.  The  individual  of  such  a  com- 
munity enjoyed  only  a  narrowly  restricted  liberty. 
Shintoism  had  no  moral  code,  because  at  this  stage 
of  ancestor-cult  religion  and  ethics  coincide. 

"(Chap.  7.)  The  great  gods  of  nature  were  de- 
veloped from  ancestor-worship,  though  their  real 
history  has  been  long  forgotten.  (Chap.  8.)  Rites 
of  worship  and  of  purification  were  many.  (Chap. 
9.)  The  rule  of  the  dead  extended  to  moral  con- 
duct and  even  to  sumptuary  matters,  language,  and 
amusements.  (Chap.  10.)  Buddhism  absorbed  the 
native  ancestor-cult,  bait  prescribed  that  prayers  be 
said  for  them,  not  to  them.  In  accordance  with  its 
principle,  'First  observe  the  person,  then  preach  the 
law' — that  is,  accommodate  instruction  to  the  hear- 
er's capacity — Buddhism  taught  the  masses  metem- 
psychosis instead  of  palingenesis,  and  the  paradise 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  329 

of  Amida  instead  of  the  nirvana  of  Buddha.  Bud- 
dhism rendered  its  greatest  service  to  Japan  by  educa- 
tion in  the  learning  and  arts  of  China.  (Chap.  11.) 
The  higher  Buddhism  is  a  kind  of  monism. 

"(Chap.  12.)  Japanese  society  was  simply  an 
amplification  of  the  patriarchal  family,  and  its  clan- 
groups  never  united  into  a  coherent  body  until  1871. 
At  first  the  bulk  of  the  people  were  slaves  or  serfs, 
but  from  the  seventh  century  a  large  class  of  freed- 
men — farmers  and  artisans — came  into  existence. 
The  first  period  of  Japanese,  social  evolution  was 
based  on  a  national  head,  the  Mikado,  and  a  national 
cult,  Shintoism ;  it  began  in  this  seventh  century,  but 
developed  to  the  limit  of  its  type  only  under  the 
Tokugawa  shoguns,  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

"Next  to  the  priest-emperor  at  the  head  came  the 
huge,  or  ancient  nobility,  from  whose  ranks  most  of 
the  latter  regents  and  shoguns  were  drawn.  Next 
ranked  the  buke,  or  samurai,  which  was  the  profes- 
sional military  class,  and  was  ruled  by  nearly  three 
hundred  daimyo,  or  feudal  lords  of  varying  import- 
ance. Next  came  the  commonalty,  heimin,  with  three 
classes;  farmers,  artisans,  and  tradesmen,  the  last 
being  despised  by  the  samurai,  who  also  could  cut 
down  any  disrespectful  heimin  with  impunity.  Low- 
est of  all  came  the  chori — pariahs,  who  were  not 
counted  Japanese  at  all,  but  mono-things'.  But  even 
among  them  distinctions  arose  according  to  occupa- 


330  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

tion.  The  close  care  taken  of  the  native  religion  by 
the  government  precluded  rise  of  a  church.  Nor  was 
Buddhism,  divided  into  hostile  sects  and  opposed  by 
the  samurai,  ever  able  to  establish  a  hierarchy  inde- 
pendent of  the  government.  Personal  freedom  was 
suppressed,  as  it  would  be  now  under  Socialism, 
which  is  simply  a  reversion  to  an  overcome  type. 

"(Chap.  13.)  The  second  period  of  Japanese  so- 
cial evolution  lasted  from  the  eleventh  to  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  was  marked  by  dominance  over 
the  mikadoate  of  successive  dynasties  of  shoguns. 
The  permanence  of  this  mikadoate  amid  all  perturba- 
tions of  the  shogunate  was  owing  to  its  religious 
nature.  (Chap.  14.)  Following  the  lord  in  death, 
suicide,  and  vendetta  were  customs  based  on  loyalty, 
and  they  involved  the  noblest  self-sacrifice.  (Chap. 
15.)  Catholic  missions  were  suppressed  lest  they 
should  lead  to  the  political  conquest  of  Japan, 
(Chap.  16.)  The  Tokugawa  shoguns  exercised  iron 
discipline,  and  now  were  brought  to  perfection  those 
exquisite  arts  and  manners  of  the  Japanese.  (Chap. 
17.)  A  revival  of  learning,  begun  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  slowly  led  to  a  new  nationalist  support  of 
the  Mikado;  and  when  by  1891  the  shogun  had  re- 
signed and  the  daimiates  been  abolished,  the  third 
period  in  Japan's  social  evolution  began.  (Chap. 
18.)  In  spite  of  outward  seeming,  the  ancient  social 
conditions  and  ancestor-cult  still  control  every  action. 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  331 

(Chap.  19).  The  individual  is  still  restrained  by  the 
conventions  of  the  masses,  by  communistic  guilds  of 
craftsmen,  and  by  the  government's  practice  of  tak- 
ing loyal  service  in  all  its  departments  without  giv- 
ing adequate  pecuniary  reward.  (Chap.  20.)  The 
educational  system  still  maintains  the  old  commu- 
nism by  training,  not  for  individual  ability,  but  for 
co-operative  action.  This  is  favored,,  too,  by  the  uni- 
versal practice  of  rich  men  meeting  the  personal 
expenses  of  promising  students.  (Chap.  21)  Japa- 
nese loyalty  and  courage  will  support  her  army  and 
navy,  but  industrial  competition  with  other  peoples 
calls  for  individual  freedom.  (Chap.  22.)  The  Japa- 
nese are  not  indifferent  to  religion,  and  can  be  under- 
stood only  by  a  study  of  their  religious  and  social 
evolution.  Future  changes  will  be  social,  but  an- 
cestor-cult will  persist,  and  offers  an  insuperable 
obstacle  to  the  spread  of  Christianity. 

"The  critical  reader  will  not  have  failed  to  meet 
in  this  summary  many  positions  that  challenge  his 
previous  knowledge,  and  whether  these  be  correct  or 
not  can  be  determined  only  by  an  examination  of  the 
full  text,  which  it  eminently  deserves.  The  re- 
viewer, however,  will  confine  himself  to  certain  mat- 
ters that  seem  to  him  the  dominating  errors  of  the 
whole.  Probably  three  greater  errors  were  never 
compressed  into  a  single  sentence  than  in  this  from 
p.  27 :  'The  real  religion  of  Japan,  the  religion  still 


332  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

professed  in  one  form  or  another  by  the  entire 
nation,  is  that  cult  which  has  been  the  foundation  of 
all  civilized  religion  and  of  all  civilized  society — an- 
cestor-worship.' That  ancestor-worship  is  still  pro- 
fessed by  the  entire  nation  is  negatived  by  all  we 
know  from  other  sources  as  well  as  all  we  should 
expect.  The  ancestor-worship  native  to  Japan  had 
been  appropriated  by  Buddhism;  and,  since  the  rev- 
olution of  1868  with  its  disestablishment  of  that 
church,  the  Butsudan,  where  the  tablets  were  kept, 
has  been  largely  sold  as  an  art  object  or  has  been 
simply  disused.  The  mitamaya  mentioned  on  p.  50, 
as  if  in  extensive  use  for  ancestor-worship,  is  found 
only  in  a  few  purist  families,  and  is  known  to  the 
mass  of  Japanese  only  as  the  rear  apartment  or 
structure  of  a  Shintoist  shrine. 

"That  ancestor-worship  is  'the  real  religion  of 
Japan7  and  'has  been  the  foundation  of  all  civilized 
religion'  are  errors  that  Mr.  Hearn  owes  to  Herbert 
Spencer's  influence,  which  is  confessed  here,  and 
indeed  is  evident  throughout  the  work.  Perhaps 
nothing  has  brought  Spencer  into  more  discredit 
than  the  lengths  he  went  to  prove  this  basic  nature 
of  ancestorism  in  his  'Principles  of  Sociology,'  and 
the  reader  of  pp.  121-24  of  Mr.  Hearn's  work  will- 
readily  see  how  futile  also  is  the  attempt  to  show 
that  the  nature-deities  of  Shintoism  were  only  'trans- 
figured ghosts.'  No,  indeed,  God  did  not  make  man 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes  333 

and  leave  ghosts  to  make  him  religious.  The  heaven 
and  the  earth  were  here  before  ghosts,  and  man 
could  personify  them  just  as  soon  as  he  knew  him- 
self as  a  person,  which  he  must  have  done  long 
before  he  analyzed  himself  into  a  ghost-soul  and  a. 
body.  Had  Mr.  Hearn  not*  ignored  Reville,  Max 
Miiller,  Pfleiderer,  and  Saussaye,  while  steeping  him- 
self in  Spencer,  he  might  have  observed,  what  is 
plainly  visible  in  Shint5ism  as  elsewhere:  that  re- 
ligion has  two  tap  roots,  ancestorism  indeed,  but  also 
naturism. 

"Again,  Mr.  Hearn's  sentence  declares  that  an- 
cestor-worship is  'the  foundation  of  all  civilized 
society.7  This  is  the  prevailing  view  throughout  the 
work;  for  example,  on  pp.  23,  57,  86,  99,  175,  and 
320.  But  other  passages  imply  the  saner  view  that 
religion  and  morality  are  co-ordinate  functions  of 
one  man.  Thus  at  p.  511,  Mr.  Hearn  attributes 
Japan's  power  to  'her  old  religious  and  social  train- 
ing.' The  many  and  strong  cases  of  influence  of 
religion  upon  conduct  that  can  really  be  shown  in 
Japan  amount  only  to  influence,  of  course,  and  not 
to  'foundation'  or  'origination.'  A  quite  transparent 
case  of  Mr.  Hearn's  error  is  where  (p.  152)  he 
attributes  the  exceptional  cleanliness  of  the  Japanese 
to  their  religion,  which  here,  as  usual,  he  sums  up 
as  ancestor-worship.  One  wonders,  however,  why 
this  world-wide  phenomenon  of  religion  should  de- 


334  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

termine  a  Japanese  cleanliness;  why  ancestor-wor- 
shipers are  not  always  clean;  as  for  example  the 
Chinese,  who  bathe  most  rarely.  It  seems  saner  to 
seek  a  cans©  for  the  unique  daily  bath  of  the  Japa- 
nese in  their  also  uniquely  numerous  thermal  springs, 
which  occur  in  no  less  than  388  different  localities. 
Symbolism  did  indeed  in  Japan,  as  elsewhere,  lead 
to  religious  bathing  in  rivers ;  but  bathing  in  rivers, 
as  in  ocean,  was  never  popular  in  Japan  until  re- 
cently learned  from  the  foreigner;  whereas  the  ther- 
mal springs  are  crowded,  and  the  daily  baths  at  home 
are  always  taken  exceedingly  hot  after  the  thermal 
pattern,  for  these  have  been  found  not  only  cleans- 
ing, but  curing  and  warming,  the  last  quality  being 
a  great  merit  where  winters  are  cold  and  houses 
unheated. 

"Finally,  the  reader  need  not  expect  to  meet  here 
any  adequate  reference  to  those  vices  that  have  been 
fostered  by  religion  in  Japan.  The  concubinage, 
confirmed  by  ancestorism,  is  once  mentioned;  and 
the  harlotry,  promoted  by  phallicism  (the  phallos 
was  frequently  found  in  a  brothel,  though  not  ex- 
clusively there,  of  course),  is  relegated  to  a  simple 
footnote.  But  such  matters  can  be  learned  else- 
where, whereas  the  close  and  frequent  points  of 
influence  which  religion  exercised  upon  politics  and 
morality  in  Japan  can  nowhere  else  be  so  well 
studied  as  here."  (292.) 


Appreciations  and  Epitomes    -      335 

THE  KOMANCE  OF  THE  MILKY  WAY1  (19)  is 
Hearn's  posthumous  book.  The  last  memories  are 
of  the  "Weaving  Lady  of  the  Milky  Way" ;  of  "Gob- 
lin Poetry";  of  "Ultimate  Questions",  which  are 
called  forth  by  the  essay  of  that  name  written  by 
the  author  of  the  "Synthetic  Philosophy";  of  the 
"Mirror  Maiden"  whom  Matsumura,  the  priest,  saved 
from  the  well,  and  who  repaid  him  by  good-fortune. 
Moreover,  of  the  alluring  maiden  in  the  dream  of 
Ito  Norisuke — if  one  is  to  choose  a  ghost  for  a  bride, 
who  would  not  seek  Himegimi-Sama  ?  As  a  finale 
there  is  the  picture  of  Admiral  Togo  sending 
to  Tokyo  "for  some  flowering-trees  in  pots — inas- 
much as  his  responsibilities  allowed  him  no  chance 
of  seeing  the  cherry-flowers  and  the  plum-blossoms 
in  their  season." 

1Copyright,  1905,  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company. 


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TRANSLATIONS 
(Nos.  20-21) 

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1882.  ONE  OF  CLEOPATRA'S  NIGHTS,  and  other  Fan- 
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II 

FOREIGN  EDITIONS 

(Nos.  22-30) 

DANISH 

No.  22. 

1902.  FRA  SKYGGERNES  VERDEN  ("From  the  World 
of  the  Shadows").  Complete  and  translated  by  Johanne 
Munther. 

178  pages,  one  portrait  Gyldendalske  book-trade,  Copen- 
hagen, 1902,  8vo. 

FRENCH 

No.  23. 

1904.  LE  JAPON  INCONNU.  (esquisses  psychologiques). 
Par  Lafcadio  Hearn.  Traduit  de  1'anglais  avec  1'autorisa- 


Bibliography  341 


tion  de  Tauteur,  par  Mme.  Le"on  Raynal.    In  18  j£sus,  III- 
354  p.    Mayenne,  ipmr.    Colin,  Paris,  lib.  Dujarric,  1904. 
(Selections  from  "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan.") 

GERMAN 
No.  24. 

1905.  KOKORO.     Von  Lafcadio   Hearn.     Einzig  autori- 
aierte  Ubersetzung  aus  dem  Englischen  von  Berta  Franzos. 
Mit  vorwort  von  Hugo  von  Hofmannsthal.     Buchschmuck 
von  Emil  Orlik.     Frankfurt  a  Main:  Riitten  und  Loening, 
1905,  8vo. 

No.  25. 

1906.  LOTUS.    Blicke  in  das  unbekannte  Japan.    Einzig 
autorisierte  Ubersetzung   aus   dem   Englischen   von   Berta 
Franzos.     Mit    vorwort    von    Hugo    von    Hofmannsthal. 
Buchschmuck  von  Emil  Orlik.    Frankfurt  a  Main:  Riitten 
und  Loening,  1905,  8vo. 

(Selections  from  "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan.") 

No.  26. 

1907.  Lafcadio  Hearn's  Werke  fiber  Japan  in  kiinstler- 
ischer  Buchausstattung  von  Emil  Orlik.    Band  I.  Kokoro. 
Band   II.  Lotus.     Band   III.   Izumo.     Frankfurt  a  Main: 
Riitten  und  Loening,  1907. 

SWEDISH 
No.  27. 

1903.  EXOTICA.  Noveller  och  studier  fr&n  Japan,  af 
Lafcadio  Hearn.  Bemyndigad  ofversattning  af  Karin  Kirn; 
med  n&gra  notlser  om  forfattaren  af  Yrjo  Hirn.  Tredje 
Upplagen.  Stockholm:  Wahlstrom  &  Widstrand,  1903, 
16mo.,  2  end  pages,  pp.  227,  decorated  paper. 

(Selections  from  "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan,"  "Out 
of  the  East,"  "Kokoro,"  "Exotics  and  Retrospectives,"  "In 
Ghostly  Japan,"  "Shadowings.") 

Reprint  1905. 


342  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

No.  28. 

1903.  EXOTICA.     Noveller  och  studier  fran  Japan,  af 
Lafcadio  Hearn.  Ny  samling.    Bemyndigad  ofversattning  af 
Karin  Him.     Stockholm:     Wahlstrom  &  Widstrand,   1903, 
16mo.,  2  p.  1.  pp.  248,  decorated  paper. 

(Selections  from  "Out  of  the  East,"  "Kokoro,"  "Glean- 
ings in  Buddha-Fields,"  "Exotics  and  Retrospectives,"  "In 
Ghostly  Japan,"  "Shadowings,"  "A  Japanese  Miscellany," 
"Kotto.") 

No.  29. 

1904.  SPOKEN  OCH  DROMMAR  FRAN  JAPAN.      (Ex- 
otica. Tredje  Samlingen)  af  Lafcadio  Hearn.    Bemyndigad 
ofversattning  fran  Engelskan  af  Karin  Him.     Wahlstrom 
&  Widstrands,  Forlag,  Stockholm,  MCMIV.,  16mo.,  1   end 
page,  pp.  218,  decorated  paper. 

(Selections  from  "Shadowings,"  "A  Japanese  Miscellany," 
"Kotto,"  "Kwaidan.") 

No.  30. 

1905.  NATALIKA.     ("Stray  Leaves  from  Strange  Lit- 
erature") af  Lafcadio  Hearn.    Bemyndigad  ofversattning  af 
Karin  Him.     Stockholm:    Wahlstrom  &  Widstrand,  16mo., 
pp.  189,  decorated  paper. 

("Runes  from  the  Kalewala"  omitted.) 


Ill 

LIST,  WITH  DESCRIPTION,  OF  SEPARATE 
PUBLISHED  WORKS  IN  CHRONO- 
LOGICAL ORDER 

(Nos.  1-21) 
ORIGINAL  WORKS 

No.  1. 

1884.     STRAY    LEAVES     FROM     STRANGE    LITERA- 
TURE.     Stories    reconstructed    from    the    Anvari-Sohe'ili, 


Bibliography  343 


Baital  Pachlsf,  Mahabharata,  Pantchatantra,  Gulistan,  Tal- 
mud, Kalewala,  etc.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn.  (Publisher's 
Monogram.)  Boston:  James  R.  Osgood  and  Company,  1884. 
16mo.,  pp.  (16),  225,  green  cloth,  black  lettering,  and 
decorations. 

(5)     Dedication:  — 

To  my  Friend 
PAGE  M.  BAKER 

Editor  of  the 
New  Orleans  Times-Democrat 

(7-11)  Explanatory  (Extract) 

While  engaged  upon  this  little  mosaic  work  of  legend 
and  fable,  I  felt  much  like  one  of  those  merchants  told  of 
in  Sindbad's  Second  Voyage,  who  were  obliged  to  content 
themselves  with  gathering  the  small  jewels  adhering  to 
certain  meat  which  eagles  brought  up  from  the  Valley  of 
Diamonds.  I  have  had  to  depend  altogether  upon  the  labor 
of  translators  for  my  acquisitions;  and  these  seemed  too 
small  to  deserve  separate  literary  setting.  By  cutting  my 
little  gems  according  to  one  pattern,  I  have  doubtless  re- 
duced the  beauty  of  some;  yet  it  seemed  to  me  their  colors 
were  so  weird,  their  luminosity  so  elfish,  that  their  intrinsic 
value  could  not  be  wholly  destroyed  even  by  so  clumsy  an 
artificer  as  I. 

In  short,  these  fables,  legends,  parables,  etc.,  are  sim- 
ply reconstructions  of  what  impressed  me  as  most  fantasti- 
cally beautiful  in  the  most  exotic  literature  which  I  was 
able  to  obtain.  With  few  exceptions,  the  plans  of  the  orig- 
inal narratives  have  been  preserved 


This  little  collection  has  no  claim  upon  the  considera- 
tion of  scholars.  It  is  simply  an  attempt  to  share  with  the 
public  some  of  those  novel  delights  I  experienced  while 
trying  to  familiarize  myself  with  some  very  strange  and 
beautiful  literatures. 


344  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

My  gems  were  few  and  small: 

the  monstrous  and  splendid  await  the  coming  of  Sindbad, 
or  some  mighty  lapidary  by  whom  they  may  be  wrought  into 
jewel  bouquets  exquisite  as  those  bunches  of  topaz  blos- 
soms and  ruby  buds  laid  upon  the  tomb  of  Nourmahal. 

New  Orleans,  1884. 
(13-14)     Bibliography. 
(15-16)     Contents:— 

Stray  Leaves 

The  Book  of  Thoth.    From  an  Egyptian  Papyrus. 
The  Fountain   Maiden.     A   Legend   of   the   South 

Pacific. 
The  Bird  Wife.    An  Esquimaux  Tradition. 

Tales  retold  from  Indian  and  Buddhist  Literature 
The  Making  of  Tilottama 
The  Brahman  and  his  Brahmani 
Bakawali 
Natalika 

The  Corpse-Demon 
The  Lion 

The  Legend  of  the  Monster  Misfortune 
A  Parable  Buddhistic 
Pundari 
Yamaraja 
The  Lotos  of  Faith 

Runes  from  the  Kalewala 
The  Magical  Words 
The  First  Musician 
The  Healing  of  Wainamoinen 

Stories  of  Moslem  Lands 
Boutimar,  the  Dove 
The  Son  of  a  Robber 
A  Legend  of  Love 
The  King's  Justice 


Bibliography  345 


Traditions  retold   from   the   Talmud 
A  Legend  of  Rabba 
The  Mockers 
Esther's  Choice 
The  Dispute  in  the  Halacha 
Rabbi  Yochanan  ben  Zachai 
A  Tradition  of  Titus  . 

New  Edition.    London:  Gay  and  Bird's,  1902,  Cr.  8vo. 
New  Edition.    London :  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Company, 
1903,  Cr.  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Charles  W.  Coleman,  Jr.,  Harper's  Monthly,  May,  1887, 
vol.  74,  p.  855. 

No.  2. 

1885.  GOMBO  ZHEBES.  Little  Dictionary  of  Creole 
Proverbs,  selected  from  six  Creole  dialects.  Translated  into 
French  and  into  English,  with  notes,  complete  index  to 
subjects  and  some  brief  remarks  upon  the  Creole  idioms 
of  Louisiana.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn.  New  York:  Will  H. 
Coleman,  Publisher,  No.  70,  Business  Quarter,  Astor  House, 
1885. 

8vo.,  6  p.  1.  pp.  42,  brown  cloth,  design  on  cover. 

(3-4)     Introduction  (Extract) 

Any  one  who  has  ever  paid  a  flying  visit  to  New  Or- 
leans probably  knows  something  about  those  various  culi- 
nary preparations  whose  generic  name  is  "Gombo" — com- 
pounded of  many  odds  and  ends,  with  the  okra-plant,  or 
true  gombo  for  a  basis,  but  also  comprising  occasionally 
"lose",  zepinard,  laitie,"  and  the  other  vegetables  sold  in 
bunches  in  the  French  market.  At  all  events,  any  person 
who  has  remained  in  the  city  for  a  season  must  have  be- 
come familiar  with  the  nature  of  "gombo  file1,"  "gombo 
f e"vi,"  and  "gombo  aux  herbes,"  or  as  our  colored  cook  calls 
it  "gombo  ,zh&bes" — for  she  belongs  to  the  older  generation 


346  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


of  Creole  cuisinidres,  and  speaks  the  patois  in  its  primitive 
purity,  without  using  a  single  "r."  Her  daughter,  who  has 
been  to  school,  would  pronounce  it  gombo  zhairbes: — the 
modern  patois  is  becoming  more  and  more  Frenchified,  and 
will  soon  be  altogether  forgotten,  not  only  throughout 
Louisiana,  but  even  in  the  Antilles.  It  still,  however,  re- 
tains originality  enough  to  be  understood  with  difficulty  by 
persons  thoroughly  familiar  with  French;  and  even  those 
who  know  nothing  of  any  language  but  English,  readily 
recognize  it  by  the  peculiarly  rapid  syllabification  and 
musical  intonation.  Such  English-speaking  residents  of 
New  Orleans  seldom  speak  of  it  as  "Creole:"  they  call  it 
gombo,  for  some  mysterious  reason  which  I  have  never 
been  able  to  explain  satisfactorily.  The  colored  Creoles  of 
the  city  have  themselves  begun  to  use  the  term  to  charac- 
terize the  patois  spoken  by  the  survivors  of  slavery  days. 
Turiault  tells  us  that  in  the  town  of  Martinique,  where  the 
Creole  is  gradually  changing  into  French,  the  Bitacos,  or 
country  negroes  who  still  speak  the  patois  nearly  pure,  are 
much  ridiculed  by  their  municipal  brethren: — £to  ou  ka  paU 
la,  che,  c'est  n$g;—Qa  pas  Creole!  ("What  you  talk  is  'nig- 
ger/ my  dear: — that  isn't  Creole!")  In  like  manner  a 
young  Creole  negro  or  negress  of  New  Orleans  might  tell 
an  aged  member  of  his  race:  @a  qui  to  parle  ca  pas  Creole: 
fa  c'est  gombo!  I  have  sometimes  heard  the  pure  and 
primitive  Creole  also  called  "Congo"  by  colored  folks  of  the 
new  generation. 

The  literature  of  "gombo"  has  perhaps  even  more  va- 
rieties than  there  are  preparations  of  the  esculents  above 
referred  to; — the  patois  has  certainly  its  gombo  f6vi,  its 
gombo  file",  its  "gombo  zhebes" — both  written  and  unwritten. 
A  work  like  Marbot's  "Bambous"  would  deserve  to  be  classed 
with  the  pure  "fevi;" — the  treatises  of  Turiault,  Baissac, 
St.  Quentin,  Thomas,  rather  resemble  that  fully  prepared 
dish,  in  which  crabs  seem  to  struggle  with  fragments  of 
many  well-stewed  meats,  all  strongly  seasoned  with  pepper. 


Bibliography  347 


The  present  essay  at  Creole  folklore,  can  only  be  classed  as 
"gombo  zhebes" — (Zhebes  &  feuil-chou,  cresson,  laitie,  bet- 
trav,  lose,  zepinard) ;  the  true  okra  is  not  the  basis  of  our 
preparation; — it  is  a  Creole  dish,  if  you  please,  but  a  sal- 
magundi of  inferior  quality. 


Needless  to  say,  this  collection  is  far  from  perfect;  — 
the  most  I  can  hope  for  is  that  it  may  constitute  the  nucleus 
of  a  more  exhaustive  publication  to  appear  in  course  of 
time.  No  one  person  could  hope  to  make  a  really  com- 
plete collection  of  Creole  proverbs — even  with  all  the  ad- 
vantages of  linguistic  knowledge,  leisure,  wealth,  and 
travel.  Only  a  society  of  folklorists  might  bring  such  an 
undertaking  to  a  successful  issue; — but  as  no  systematic 
effort  is  being  made  in  this  direction,  I  have  had  no  hesita- 
tion in  attempting — not  indeed  to  fill  a  want — but  to  set  an 
example.  Gou'ie  passe,  difil  sivre: — let  the  needle  but  pass, 
the  thread  will  follow.  L.  H. 

(6)     Creole  Bibliography. 
Pages  40-42  Indexes. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Nation,  The,  April  23,  1885,  vol.  40,  p.  349. 

No.  3. 

1887.  SOME  CHINESE  GHOSTS.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn. 
(Chinese  Characters)  Boston:  Roberts  Brothers,  1887. 
IGmo.,  p.  (8)  185,  brown  cloth  with  Chinese  mask  on 
cover,  red  top. 

Facing  Title-page: — 

If  ye  desire  to  witness  prodigies  and  to  behold  marvels, 
"be  not  concerned  as  to  whether  the  mountains  are  distant 
or  the  rivers  far  away. 

Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan. 


S48  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

(2)     Dedication:  — 

To   my  Friend, 
HENRY  EDWARD  KREHBIEL 

The   Musician, 
who,   speaking  the   speech   of   melody   unto   the 

children  of  Tien-hia, — 
unto  the  wandering  Tsing-jin,  whose  skins 

have  the  color  of  gold, — 
moved  them  to  make  strange  sounds  upon  the 

serpent-bellied  San-hien; 
persuaded  them  to  play  for  me  upon  the 

shrieking  Ya-hien; 
prevailed  on  them  to  sing  me  a  song  of  their 

native  land, — 

the  song  of  MohU-hwa, 

the  song  of  the  jasmine-flower. 

(Sketch  of  Chinaman's  head.) 

(Reverse)   Chinese  Character. 

(3-4)   Preface. 

I  think  that  my  best  apology  for  the  insignificant  size 
of  this  volume  is  the  very  character  of  the  material  com- 
posing it.  In  preparing  the  legends  I  sought  especially 
for  weird  beauty;  and  I  could  not  forget  this  striking  ob- 
servation in  Sir  Walter  Scott's  "Essay  on  Imitations  of 
the  Ancient  Ballad":  "The  supernatural,  though  appealing 
to  certain  powerful  emotions  very  widely  and  deeply  sown 
amongst  the  human  race,  is,  nevertheless,  a  spring  which  is 
peculiarly  apt  to  lose  its  elasticity  by  being  too  much 
pressed  upon."  Those  desirous  to  familiarize  themselves 
with  Chinese  literature  as  a  whole  have  had  the  way  made 
smooth  for  them  by  the  labors  of  linguists  like  Julien, 
Pavie,  Re"musat,  De  Rosny,  Schlegel,  Legge,  Hervey-Saint- 
Denys,  Williams,  Biot,  Giles,  Wylie,  Beal,  and  many  other 
Sinologists.  To  such  great  explorers  indeed,  the  realm 
of  Cathayan  story  belongs  by  right  of  discovery  and  con- 


Bibliography  349 


quest;  yet  the  humbler  traveller  who  follows  wonderingly 
after  them  into  the  vast  and  mysterious  pleasure-grounds 
of  Chinese  fancy  may  surely  be  permitted  to  cull  a  few 
of  the  marvellous  flowers  there  growing, — a  self-luminous 
hwa-wang,  a  black  lily,  a  phosphoric  rose  or  two, — as  souv- 
enirs of  his  curious  voyage. 

L.  H. 
New  Orleans,  March  15,  1886. 

(5)     Contents:  — 
The  Soul  of  the  Great  Bell 
The  Story  of  Ming-Y 
The  Legend  of  Tchi-Niu 
The  Return  of  Yen-Tchin-King 
The  Tradition  of  the  Tea-Plant 
The  Tale  of  the  Porcelain-God 

Appendix: — 

Notes. 

Glossary. 

New  Edition.    Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Company,  1906, 
12mo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Charles  W.  Coleman,  Jr.,  Harper's  Monthly,  May,  1887, 

vol.  74,  p.  855. 
Nation,  The,  May  26,  1887,  vol.  44,  p.  456. 

No.  4. 

1889.     CHITA:   a  Memory  of  Last  Island.     By  Lafcadio 
Hearn. 

"But  Nature  whistled  with  all  her  winds, 
Did  as  she  pleased,  and  went  her  way." 

— Emerson. 

New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers,  Franklin  Square,  1889. 
12mo.,  3  p.l.  pp.  204,  terra-cotta  cloth,  decorated. 

(Published  first  in  Harper's  Monthly,  April,  1888.) 


350  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


(1)  Dedication:  — 

To  my  Friend 
DR.  RODOLFO  MATAS 

of 
New  Orleans 

(2)  Contents:  — 

Part  1 
The  Legend  of  L'tle  Dernifcre 

Part  11 
Out  of  the  Sea's  Strength 

Part  111 
The  Shadow  of  the  Tide 

(Reverse) 

Je  suis  la  vaste  melee, — 
Reptile,  etant  Vonde;  aiUe, 

Etant  le  vent, — 

Force  et  fuite,  haine  et  vie, 

Houle  immense,  poursuivie 

Et  poursuivant. 

— Victor  Hugo. 
Articles  and  Reviews: — 

Boston  Evening   Transcript,    The,   November   2,   1889. 
Hutson,   Charles   Woodward,  Poet-Lore,    Spring,    1905, 
vol.  16,  p.  53. 

No.  5. 

1890.    YOUMA.     The  Story  of  a  West-Indian  Slave.     By 
Lafcadio     Hearn.       (Publisher's     Vignette)      New     York: 
Harper  &  Brothers,  Franklin  Square,  1890. 
12mo.,  1  p.l.,  pp.  193,  frontispiece  illustration,  red  cloth. 

(Published  first  in  Harper's  Monthly,  January-February, 
1890.) 

(1)     Dedication:— 

To  my  friend 
JOSEPH  S.  TUNISON. 

The  Same.    London:  Sampson,  Low  and  Company,  1890, 
8vo. 


Bibliography  351 


Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Athenvum,  The,  August  30,  1890,  p.  284. 
Nation,  The,  May  7,  1891,  vol.  52,  p.  385. 

No.  6. 

1890.  TWO  YEARS  IN  THE  FRENCH  WEST  INDIES. 
By  Lafcadio  Hearn.  Illustrated.  (Publisher's  Vignette) 
New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers,  Franklin  Square,  1890. 
8vo.,  pp.  (12)  431,  38  full-page  illustrations,  6  illustra- 
tions in  the  text,  green  cloth  ornamental. 

(Reverse) 

"La  facon  d'etre  du  pays  est  si  agreable,  la  temperature 
si  bonne,  et  Von  y  vit  dans  une  liberte  si  honnete,  que  je 
n'aye  pas  vu  un  seul  homme,  ny  une  seule  femme,  qui  en 
soient  revenus,  en  qui  je  n'aye  remarque  une  grande  passion 
d'y  retourner." — Le  PSre  Dutertre  (1667.) 

(3)     Dedication:  — 

"A  mon  cher  ami 

LEOPOLD  ARNOUX 

Notaire  a   Saint   Pierre,   Martinique. 

Souvenir  de  nos  promenades, — de  nos  voyages, — de  nos 
causeries, — des  sympathies  echangees, — de  tout  le  charme 
d'une  amitie  inalterable  et  inoubliable, — de  tout  ce  qui 
parle  a  Vdme  au  doux  Pays  des  Revenants. 

(5-6)   Preface   (Extract). 

The  introductory  paper,  entitled  "A  Midsummer  Trip  to 
the  Tropics"  consists  for  the  most  part  of  notes  taken  upon 
a  voyage  of  nearly  three  thousand  miles,  accomplished 
in  less  than  two  months.  During  such  hasty  journeying 
it  is  scarcely  possible  for  a  writer  to  attempt  anything 
more  serious  than  a  mere  reflection  of  the  personal  ex- 
periences undergone;  and,  in  spite  of  sundry  justifiable 
departures  from  simple  note-making,  this  paper  is  offered 


352  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


only  as  an  effort  to  record  the  visual   and  emotional  im- 
pressions of  the  moment 

My  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  William  Lawless,  British 
Consul  at  St.  Pierre,  for  several  beautiful  photographs, 
taken  by  himself,  which  have  been  used  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  illustrations. 

L.  H. 

Philadelphia,  1889. 

(7)     Contents:  — 
A  Midsummer  Trip  to  the  Tropics  (Harper's  Monthly, 

July-September,   1888.) 
Martinique  Sketches:  — 

I.  Les  Porteuses   (Harper's  Monthly,  July,  1889) 
II.  La  Grande  Anse    (Harper's  Monthly,  November, 
1889) 

III.  Un  Revenant 

IV.  La  Guiablesse 

V.  La  Verette   (Harper's  Monthly,  October,  1888) 
VI.  Les  Blanchisseusses 

VII.  La  Pelee 

VIII.  'Ti  Canotie 

IX.  La  Pille  de  Couleur 
X.  Bete-ni-Pie 
XL  Ma  Bonne 
XII.  "Pa  combing,  che!" 

XIII.  Y6 

XIV.  Lys. 

XV.  Appendix:    Some  Creole  Melodies 

(9-10)     Illustrations:  — 

The  Same.    London:   Harper  and  Brothers,  1890,  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews: — 

New  York  Times,  The,  September  1,  1890. 

No.  7. 

1894.     GLIMPSES      OF      UNFAMILIAR      JAPAN.       By 
Lafcadio  Hearn.     In  two  volumes.     (Vignette.)  Boston  and 


Bibliography  353 


New  York:    Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company.     (The  River- 
side Press,  Cambridge),  1894. 

8vo.,  2  vols.  pp.   (x)   699,  dull  green  cloth,  silver  letter- 
ing and  design,  gilt  top. 

(1)     Dedication:  — 

To  the  Friends 

whose   kindness   alone    rendered    possible 
my  sojourn  in  the  Orient, — 

to 
PAYMASTER  MITCHELL  McDONALD,  U.  S.  N. 

and 

BASIL  HALL  CHAMBERLAIN,  ESQ. 

Emeritus    Professor    of    Philology    and   Japanese    in    the 

Imperial  University  of  Tokyo 

I  dedicate  these  volumes 

in    token   of 
Affection  and  Gratitude. 

(V-X)     Preface   (Extract.) 

But  the  rare  charm  of  Japanese  life,  so  different  from 
that  of  all  other  lands,  is  not  to  be  found  in  its  European- 
ized  circles.  It  is  to  be  found  among  the  great  common 
people,  who  represent  in  Japan,  as  in  all  countries,  the 
national  virtues,  and  who  still  cling  to  their  delightful 
old  customs,  their  picturesque  dresses,  their  Buddhist 
images,  their  household  shrines,  their  beautiful  and  touch- 
ing worship  of  ancestors.  This  is  the  life  of  which  a 
foreign  observer  can  never  weary,  if  fortunate  and  sym- 
pathetic enough  to  enter  into  it, — the  life  that  forces  him 
sometimes  to  doubt  whether  the  course  of  our  boasted 
Western  progress  is  really  in  the  direction  of  moral 
development.  Each  day,  while  the  years  pass,  there  will 
be  revealed  to  him  some  strange  and  unsuspected  beauty 
in  it.  Like  other  life,  it  has  its  darker  side;  yet  even  this 
is  brightness  compared  with  the  darker  side  of  Western 
existence.  It  has  its  foibles,  its  follies,  its  vices,  its 


354  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


cruelties;  yet  the  more  one  sees  of  it,  the  more  one 
marvels  at  its  extraordinary  goodness,  its  miraculous 
patience,  its  never-failing  courtesy,  its  simplicity  of  heart, 
its  intuitive  charity.  And  to  our  own  larger  Occidental 
comprehension,  its  commonest  superstitions,  however  con- 
temned at  Tokyo,  have  rarest  value  as  fragments  of  the 
unwritten  literature  of  its  hopes,  its  fears,  its  experience 
with  right  and  wrong, — its  primitive  efforts  to  find  solu- 
tions for  the  riddle  of  the  Unseen. 

Contents:  — 
Volume  I. 

I.    My  First  Day  in  the  Orient 
II.     The  Writing  of  Kobodaishi 

III.  Jizo 

IV.  A  Pilgrimage  to  Enoshima 

V.    At   the   Market  of   the   Dead    (Atlantic  Monthly, 

September,  1891.) 
VI.     Bon-Odori 

VII.    The  Chief  City  of  the  Province  of  the  Gods   (At- 
lantic Monthly,  November,  1891.) 

VIII.    Kitzuki:  The  Most  Ancient  Shrine  in  Japan  (At- 
lantic Monthly,  December,  1891.) 
IX.    In  the  Cave  of  the  Children's  Ghosts 
X.    At  Mionoseki 
XI.    Notes  on  Kitzuki 
XII.    At  Hinomisaki 

XIII.  Shinju 

XIV.  Yaegaki-Jinja 
XV.    Kitsune 

Volume  II. 

XVI.     In  a  Japanese   Garden    (Atlantic  Monthly,   July, 

1892.) 

XVII.    The  Household  Shrine 
XVIII.     Of  Women's  Hair 


Bibliography  355 


XIX.  From  the  Diary  of  an  English  Teacher 

XX.  Two  Strange  Festivals 

XXI.  By  the  Japanese  Sea 

XXII.  Of  a  Dancing-Girl  (Atlantic  Monthly,  July,  1893.) 

XXIII.  From  Hoki  to  Oki 

XXIV.  Of  Souls 

XXV.  Of  Ghosts  and  Gohlins 

XXVI.  The    Japanese    Smile    '(Atlantic    Monthly,    May, 

1893.) 

XXVII.  Sayonara! 

Pages  695-99  Index. 

The  Same.  London:  Osgood,  Mcllvaine  and  Company, 
1894,  2  vols.  8vo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Gay  and  Bird's,  1902,  2  vols. 
Cr.  8vo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Com- 
pany, 1903,  2  vols.,  Cr.  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Bentzon,  Th.,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  June  1,  1904, 

vol.  21,  p.  556. 
Brandt,   M.   von,   Deutsche  Rundschau,   October,   1900, 

vol.  27,  p.  68. 
Challaye",  F61icien,  Revue  de  Mttaphysique  et  de  Morale, 

1903,  vol.  11,  p.  338. 
Challaye1,  Felicien,  Revue  de  Paris,  December  1,  1904, 

vol.  6,  p.  655. 

Literary  World,  The,  October  20,  1894,  vol.  25,  p.  347. 
Scott,  Mrs.  M.  McN.,  Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1895,  vol. 

75,  p.  830. 
Spectator,  The,  November  17,  1894,  vol.  73,  p.  698. 

No.  8. 

1895.  "OUT  OF  THE  EAST."  Reveries  and  Studies  in 
New  Japan.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn. 

"As  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west" — 


356  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


(Publisher's  Vignette)  Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton, 
Mifflin  and  Company.  (The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge), 
1895. 

16mo.,  2  p.  1.,  pp.  341,  yellow  cloth,  silver  lettering, 
yellow  top. 

(1)  Dedication:— 

To 

NISHIDA  SENTARO 

in  dear   remembrance  of 

Izumo  days 

(2)  Contents: — 

I.  The  Dream  of  a  Summer  Day 

II.  With  Kyushu  Students 

III.  At  Hakata  (Atlantic  Monthly,  October,  1894.) 

IV.  Of  the  Eternal  Feminine  (Atlantic  Monthly,  Decem- 

ber, 1893.) 

V.    Bits  of  Life  and  Death 

VI.    The  Stone  Buddha 
VII.    Jiujutsu 
VIII.    The  Red  Bridal  (Atlantic  Monthly,  July,  1894.) 

IX.    A  Wish  Fulfilled  (Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1895.) 

X.     In  Yokohama 

XI.    Yuko:  a  Reminiscence 

"The  Dream  of  a  Summer  Day"  first  appeared  in  the 
Japan  Daily  Mail. 

The  Same.  London:  Osgood,  Mcllvaine  and  Company, 
1895,  16mo. 

New  Edition.    London:   Gay  and  Bird's,  1902,  Cr.  8vo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Com- 
pany, 1903,  Cr.  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Athenvpum.  The,  August  24,  1895,  p.  249. 
Brandt,   M.   von.   Deutsche  Rundschau,   October,   1900, 
vol.  105,  p.  68. 


Bibliography  357 


Challaye,  Felicien,  Revue  de  Metaphysique  et  de  Morale, 

1903,  vol.  11,  p.  338. 
Challayg,  Felicien,  Revue  de  Paris,  December  1,  1904, 

vol.  6,  p.  655. 

Literary  World,  The,  April  20,  1895,  vol.  26,  p.  123. 
Scott,  Mrs.  M.  McN.,  Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1895,  vol. 

75,  p.  830. 
Spectator,  The,  October  12,  -1895,  vol.  75,  p.  459. 

No.  9. 

1896.  KOKORO:  Hints  and  Echoes  of  Japanese  Inner  Life. 
By  Lafcadio  Hearn.  (Top  of  page  "Kokoro"  in  Japanese) 
(Sketch  of  Japanese  Head)  Boston  and  New  York: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company,  (The  Riverside  Press, 
Cambridge,  1896). 

16  mo.,  3  p.  1.,  pp.  388,  green  cloth,  gold  lettering,  gilt 
top. 

(1)  Dedication:  — 

To  my   Friend 

AMENOMORI  NOBUSHIGE 

poet,  scholar,  and  patriot 

(2)  Note:  — 

(Japanese  character) 

The  papers  composing  this  volume  treat  of  the  inner 
rather  than  of  the  outer  life  of  Japan, — for  which  rea- 
son they  have  been  grouped  under  the  title,  "Kokoro" 
(heart).  Written  with  the  above  character,  this  word 
signifies  also  mind,  in  the  emotional  sense;  spirit;  courage; 
resolve;  sentiment;  affection;  and  inner  meaning, — just 
as  we  say  in  English,  "the  heart  of  things." 

Kob6,  September  15,  1895. 

(3)  Contents:  — 

I.    At  a  Railway  Station 

II.    The    Genius    of    Japanese    Civilization     (Atlantic 
Monthly,  October,  1895.) 


358  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


III.  A  Street  Singer 

IV.  From  a  Traveling  Diary  (Atlantic  Monthly,  Decem- 

ber, 1895.) 

V.    The  Nun  of  the  Temple  of  Amida 
VI.     After  the  War  (Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1895.) 
VII.     Hani 

VIII.    A  Glimpse  of  Tendencies 
IX.    By  Force  of  Karma 
X.    A  Conservative 
XI.     In  the  Twilight  of  the  Gods  (Atlantic  Monthly,  June, 

1895.) 
XII.     The  Idea  of  Preexistence 

XIII.  In  Cholera-Time 

XIV.  Some  Thoughts  about  Ancestor-Worship 
XV.    Kimiko 

Appendix.    Three  Popular  Ballads 

The   Same.    London:    Osgood,  Mcllvaine   and   Company, 
1896,  8vo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Gay  and  Bird's,  1902,  Cr.  8vo. 
New  Edition.  London:  Gay  and  Bird's,  1903,  Cr.  8vo. 
Popular  Edition.  London:  Gay  and  Bird's,  1905,  Cr.  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Athenceum,  The,  August  8,  1896,  p.  185. 

Bentzon,  Th.,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  June  1,  1904, 

vol.  21,  p.  556. 
Brandt,   M.   von,  Deutsche  Rundschau,   October,   1900, 

vol.  105,  p.  68. 
Challaye"  Felicien,  Revue  de  Metaphysique  et  de  Morale, 

1903,  vol.  11,  p.  338. 
Challaye  Felicien,  Revue  de  Paris,  December  1,  1904, 

vol.  6,  p.  655. 
Cockerill,  Col.  John  A.,  Current  Literature,  June,  189 G, 

vol.  19,  p.  476. 
Herzog,   Wilhelm,   Die   Nation,    January   6,   1906,   vol. 

23,  p.  217. 


Bibliography  359 


Literary  World,  The,  April  18,  1896,  vol.  27,  p.  116. 
Nation,  The,  July;  9,  1896,  vol.  63,  p.  35. 
Spectator,  The,  May  23,  1896,  vol.  76,  p.  739. 
Takayanagi,   Tozo,    The  Book  Buyer,   May,   1896,   vol. 
13,  p.  229. 

No.  10. 

1897.  GLEANINGS  IN  BUDDHA-FIELDS,  Studies  of 
Hand  and  Soul  in  the  Far  East.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn. 
Lecturer  on  English  Literature  in  the  Imperial  University 
of  Japan.  (Publisher's  Vignette)  Boston  and  New  York: 
Hough  ton,  Mifflin  and  Company.  (The  Riverside  Press, 
Cambridge.) 

12mo.,  pp.  296,  blue  cloth,  gold  lettering,  gilt  top. 

Contents:  — 

I.    A  Living  God  (Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1896.) 
II.    Out   of   the    Street    (Atlantic   Monthly,    September, 
1896.) 

III.  Notes  of  a  Trip  to  Kyoto   (Atlantic  Monthly,  May, 

1896.) 

IV.  Dust   (Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1896.) 

V.  About   Faces    in   Japanese   Art    (Atlantic   Monthly, 

August,  1896.) 

VI.  Ningyo-no-Haka 

VII.  In  "Osaka 

VIII.  Buddhist  Allusions  in  Japanese  Folk-Song 

IX.  Nirvana 

X.  The  Rebirth  of  Katsugoro 

XL  Within  the  Circle 

The  Same.     London:  Constable  and  Company,  1897,  8vo. 
New  Edition.     London:    Gay  and  Bird's,  1902,  Cr.  8vo. 
New  Edition.     London:    Kegan  Paul,   Trench  and  Com- 
pany. 1903,  8vo, 


360  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Academy,  The,  November  13,  1897,  vol.  52,  p.  395. 
Athenceum,  The,  November  13,  1897,  p.  664. 
Challaye,  Fe"licien,  Revue  de  Metaphysique  et  de  Morale, 

1903,  vol.  11,  p.  338. 

Critic,  The,  April  9,  1898,  vol.  29,  p.  248. 
Independent,  The,  November  24,  1898,  vol.  50,  p.  1508. 
Literary  World,  The,  November  13,  1897,  vol.  28,  p.  389. 
Nation,  The,  February  3,  1898,  vol.  66,  p.  97. 
Outlook  The,  October  16,  1897,  vol.  57,  p.  435. 
Public  Opinion,  November  25,  1897,  vol.  23,  p.   694. 
Spectator,  The,  November  20,  1897,  vol.  79,  p.  736. 
Wagner,  John  Harrison,   The  Book  Buyer,  June  1898, 

vol.  16,  p.  437. 

No.  11. 

1898.  EXOTICS  AND  RETROSPECTIVES.  By  Lafcadio 
Hearn.  Lecturer  on  English  Literature  in  the  Imperial 
University,  Tokyo.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Company, 
MDCCCXCIX. 

16mo.,  4  p.  1.,  pp.  299,  4  full-page  illustrations,  13  illustra- 
tions in  the  text.  Green  cloth  decorated,  gold  lettering, 
gilt  top. 

(1)  Dedication:  — 

To 
Dr.  C.  H.  H.  Hall, 

of   Yokohama 

(late  U.  S.  Navy) 

In    Constant   Friendship 

(2)  (Prefatory  Note) 

All  but  one  of  the  papers  composing  this  volume  appear 
for  the  first  time.  The  little  essays,  or  rather  fantasies, 
forming  the  second  part  of  the  book,  deal  with  experiences 


Bibliography  361 


in  two  hemispheres;  but  their  general  title  should  explain 
why  they  have  been  arranged  independently  of  that  fact. 
To  any  really  scientific  imagination,  the  curious  analogy 
existing  between  certain  teachings  of  evolutional  psychol- 
ogy and  certain  teachings  of  Eastern  faith, — particularly 
the  Buddhist  doctrine  that  all  sense-life  is  Karma,  and  all 
substance  only  the  phenomenal  result  of  acts  and  thoughts, 
— might  have  suggested  something  much  more  significant 
than  my  cluster  of  "Retrospectives."  These  are  offered 
merely  as  intimations  of  a  truth  incomparably  less  difficult 
to  recognize  than  to  define. 

Tokyo,  Japan,  L.  H. 

February  15,  1898. 

(3)     Contents:  — 
Exotics: 

I.    Fuji-no-Yama 
II.     Insect-Musicians 

III.  A  Question  in  the  Zen  Texts 

IV.  The  Literature  of  the  Dead 
V.     Frogs 

VI.    Of  Moon-Desire 

Retrospectives : 

I.    First  Impressions 
II.    Beauty  is  Memory 

III.  Sadness  in  Beauty 

IV.  Parfum  de  Jeunesse 

V.  Azure    Psychology     (Teikoku    Bungaku,    Yoko- 
hama) 

VI.  A  Serenade 

VII.  A  Red  Sunset 

VIII.  Frisson 

IX.  Vespertina  Cognitio 

X.  The  Eternal  Haunter 


362  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


(4)     List  of  Illustrations. 

The  Same.  London:  Sampson,  Low  and  Company,  1898, 
16mo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Sampson,  Low  and  Company, 
1899,  8vo. 

New  Popular  Edition.  Boston:  kittle,  Brown  and  Com- 
pany, 1904,  16mo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Com- 
pany, 1905,  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 
Athenccum,  The,  January  6,  1900,  p.  11. 
Bentzon,  Th.,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Jun&  1,  1904, 

vol.  21,  p.  556. 

Dial,  The,  July  16,  1899,  vol.  27,  p.  52. 
International  Studio,  The,  1905,  vol.  25,  p.  XL. 
Nation,  The,  January  26,  1905,  vol.  80,  p.  68. 

No.  12. 

1899.  IN  GHOSTLY  JAPAN.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn. 
Lecturer  on  English  Literature  in  the  Imperial  University, 
Tokyo.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Company,  MDCCCXCIX. 

16mo.,  5  p.  1.,  pp.  241,  4  full-page  illustrations,  5  illus- 
trations in  the  text.  Blue  cloth,  ornamented  with  white 
cherry-blossoms,  gold  lettering,  gilt  top. 

(1.)     Dedication:— 

To 

Mrs.  Alice  Von  Behrens 
For  Auld  Lang  Syne 

(2)  In  Ghostly  Japan 

Yoru  bakari 
Miru  mono  nari  to 

Omou-nayo! 
Hiru  sae  yume  no 
UJciyo  nari-keri. 


Bibliography  363 


Think  not  that  dreams  appear  to  the  dreamer 
only  at  night:  the  dream  of  this  world  of  pain 
appears  to  us  even  by  day. 

Japanese  Poem. 

(3)  Contents:  — 
Fragment 
Furisode 
Incense 

A  Story  of  Divination 

Silkworms 

A  Passional  Karma 

Footprints  of  the  Buddha 

Ululation 

Bits  of  Poetry 

Japanese  Buddhist  Proverbs 

Suggestion 

Ingwa-Banashi 

Story  of  a  Tengu 

At  Yaidzu 

(4)  List  of  Illustrations. 

The  Same.  London:  Sampson,  Low  and  Company,  1899, 
8vo. 

New  Popular  Edition.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Com- 
pany, 1904,  16mo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Com- 
pany, 1905,  Cr.  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Inouye,    Jukichi,   Atlantic   Monthly,    September,    1900, 

vol.  86,  pp.  399. 

International  Studio,  The,  1905,  vol.  25,  p.  XL. 
Nation,  The,  January  26,  1905,  vol.  80,  p.  68. 

No.  13. 
1900.     SHADOWINGS.     By  Lafcadio  Hearn,  Lecturer  on 


864  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


English  Literature  in  the  Imperial  University,  Tokyo,  Japan. 
Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Company,  1900. 
12mo.,  pp.  (IV)  268,  cloth. 

(I.)     Dedication:  — 

To  Paymaster  Mitchell  McDonald 

U.  S.  Navy 
My  dear  Mitchell,— 

Herein  I  have  made  some  attempt  to  satisfy 
your  wish  for  "a  few  more  queer  stories  from  the 
Japanese."  Please  accept  the  book  as  another  token 
of  the  writer's  affection. 

Lafcadio  Hearn 

Tokyo,  Japan,  (Koizumi  Yakumo) 

January  1,  1900. 

(II.)     Contents:  — 
Stories  from  Strange  Books: — 
I.    The  Reconciliation 
II.    A  Legend  of  Fugen-Bosatsu 

III.  The  Screen-Maiden 

IV.  The  Corpse-Rider 

V.    The  Sympathy  of  Benten 
VI.    The  Gratitude  of  the  Same'bito 

Japanese  Studies:  — 
I.    Semi 

II.    Japanese  Female  Names 
III.    Old  Japanese  Songs 

Fantasies:  — 

I.     Noctilucae 
II.    A  Mystery  of  Crowds 

III.  Gothic  Horror 

IV.  Levitation 

V.  Nightmare-Touch 

VI.    Readings  from  a  Dream-Book 
VII.     In  a  Pair  of  Eyes 


Bibliography  365 


(III.)     Illustrations. 

(IV.)     Bastard  title-page:  — 

II  avait  vu  bruler  d'etranges  pierres, 
Jadis,  dans  les  brasiers  de  la  pensee. 

Emile  Verhaeren 

The  Same.  London:  Sampson,  Low  and  Company,  1900, 
8vo. 

New  Popular  Edition.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Com- 
pany, 1904,  16mo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Com- 
pany, 1905,  Cr.  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 
Athenceum,  The,  January  5,  1901,  p.  15. 
Bentzon,  Th.,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  June  1,  1904,  vol. 

21,  p.  556. 

P.  T.  C.,  The  Bookman,  February,  1901,  vol.  12,  p.  582. 
Dial,  The,  January  1,  1901,  vol.  30,  p.  19. 
International  Studio,  The,  1905,  vol.  25,  p.  XL. 
Kinnosuke",  Adachi,  The  Critic,  January,  1901,  vol.  38, 

p.  29. 

Nation,  The,  November  8,  1900,  vol.  71,  p.  372. 
Nation,  The,  January  26,  1905,  vol.  80,  p.  68. 
Public  Opinion,  October  18,  1900,  vol.  29,  p.  504. 

No.  14. 

1901.  A  JAPANESE  MISCELLANY.  By  Lafcadio 
Hearn.  Lecturer  on  English  Literature  in  the  Imperial 
University  of  Tokyo.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Company, 
MDCCCCI. 

12mo.  5  p.  1.,  pp.  305,  2  full-page  illustrations,  6  plates, 
5  illustrations  in  the  text.  Green  cloth,  decorated,  gold 
lettering,  gilt  top. 

(1)     Dedication:  — 

To 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Bisland  Wetmore 


366  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

(2)  Contents:  — 
Strange  Stories: 

I.  Of  a  Promise  Kept 

II.  Of  a  Promise  Broken 

III.  Before  the  Supreme  Court 

IV.  The  Story  of  Kwashin  Koji 
V.  The  Story  of  Umetsu  Chiibei 

VI.     The  Story  of  Kogi  the  Priest 

Folklore  Gleanings: 

I.    Dragon-Flies  (illustrated) 
II.    Buddhist  Names  of  Plants  and  Animals 
III.    Songs  of  Japanese  Children  (illustrated) 

Studies  Here  and  There: 

I.     On  a  Bridge 
II.    The  Case  of  O-Dai 

III.  Beside  the  Sea  (illustrated) 

IV.  Drifting 

V.  Otokichi's  Daruma  (illustrated) 
VI.    In  a  Japanese  Hospital 

(3)  Illustrations. 

The  Same.  London:  Sampson,  Low  and  Company,  1901, 
8vo. 

New  Popular  Edition.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Com- 
pany, 1904,  16mo. 

New  Edition.  London:  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Com- 
pany, 1905,  Cr.  8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews: — 

Athen&um,  December  21,  1901,  p.  833. 
International  Studio,  The,  1905,  vol.  25,  p.  XL. 
Literary  World,  The,  December  1,  1901,  vol.  32,  p.  207. 
Nation,  The,  January  9,  1902,  vol.  74,  p.  39. 
Nation,  The,  January  26,  1905,  vol.  80,  p.  68. 


Bibliography  367 


No.  15. 

1902.  JAPANESE  FAIRY  TALES.  Rendered  into  Eng- 
lish by  Lafcadio  Hearn.  Published  by  T.  Hasegawa,  Pub- 
lisher and  Art-Printer,  Tokyo,  Japan. 

Four  16mo.  books  on  Japanese  folded  crepe  paper,  highly 
illustrated  in  colors. 

No.  22.     The  Goblin  Spider 

No.  23.    The  Boy  Who  Drew  Cats 

No.  24.    The  Old  Woman  Who  Lost  Her  Dumpling 

No.  25.    Chin  Chin  Kobakama 

No.  16. 

1902.  KOTTO  (Japanese  Characters).  Being  Japanese 
Curios,  with  Sundry  Cobwebs.  Collected  by  Lafcadio 
Hearn,  Lecturer  on  English  Literature  in  the  Imperial 
University  of  Tokyo,  Japan.  With  illustrations  by  Genjiro 
Yeto.  New  York:  The  Macinillan  Company.  (London: 
Macmillan  &  Company,  Ltd.)  1902. 

8vo.,  4  p.  1.,  pp.  251,  brown  cloth  decorated,  gold  lettering, 
gilt  top. 

(1)  Dedication:  — 

To 
SIR  EDWIN  ARNOLD 

in 
grateful  remembrance 

of 
kinds  words 

(2)  Contents: — 
Old  Stories: 

I.  The  Legend  of  Yurei-Daki 

II.  In  a  Cup  of  Tea 

III.  Common  Sense 

IV.  Ikiryo 
V.  Shiryo 


368  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


VI.  The  Story  of  O-Kame 

VII.  Story  of  a  Fly 

VIII.  Story  of  a  Pheasant 

IX.  The  Story  of  Chugoro 

A  Woman's  Diary 

HeikS-Gani 

Fireflies 

A  Drop  of  Dew 

Gaki 

A  Matter  of  Custom 

Revery 

Pathological 

In  the  Dead  of  the  Night 

Kusa-Hibari 

The  Eater  of  Dreams 

(3)   ' 

Old  Stories 

The  following  nine  tales  have  been  selected  from  the 
"Shin-Chomon-Shu,"  "Hyaku  Monogatari,"  "Uji-Jui-Monoga- 
tari-Sho,"  and  other  old  Japanese  fcoofcs,  to  illustrate  some 
strange  beliefs.  They  are  only  Curios. 

The  Same.    Reprinted  April,  1903. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 
Athenwum,  The,  January  17,  1903,  p.  77. 
Book  Buyer,  The,  December,  1902,  vol.  25,  p.  416. 
More,  Paul  Elmer,  Atlantic  Monthly,  February,  1903, 

vol.  91,  p.  204. 
Nation,  The,  March  26,  1903,  vol.  76,  p.  254. 

No.  17. 

1904.  KWAIDAN:  Stories  and  Studies  of  Strange 
Things. — Lafcadio  Hearn,  Lecturer  on  English  Literature 
in  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokyo,  Japan  (1896-1903). 
Honorary  Member  of  the  Japan  Society,  London.  (Japan- 


Bibliography  369 


ese    Characters.)       Boston    and    New    York:     Houghton, 
Mifflin  and  Company,  MDCCCCIV.     (Published  April,  1904.) 
12mo.,  6  p.  1.,  pp.  240,  illustrated,  2  plates,  dark  green 
cloth,  decorated,  gold  lettering,  gilt  top. 

(1)     Introduction  by  publisher:  — 

(3)  Prefatory  Note:  — 

Most  of  the  following  Kwaidan,  or  Weird  Tales,  have 
been  taken  from  old  Japanese  books, — such  as  the  Yaso- 
Kidan,  Bukkyo-Hyakkwa-Zensho,  Kokon-Chomonshu,  Tama- 
Sudare,  and  Hyaku-Monogatari.  Some  of  the  stories  may 
have  had  a  Chinese  origin:  the  very  remarkable  "Dream  of 
Akinosuke,"  for  example,  is  certainly  from  a  Chinese 
source.  But  the  Japanese  story-teller  in  every  case,  has  so 
recolored  and  reshaped  his  borrowing  as  to  naturalize 
it.  ...  One  queer  tale,  "Yuki-Onna,"  was  told  me  by  a 
farmer  of  Chofu,  Nishitamagori,  in  Musashi  province,  as  a 
legend  of  his  native  village.  Whether  it  has  even  been 
written  in  Japanese  I  do  not  know;  but  the  extraordinary 
belief  which  it  records  used  certainly  to  exist  in  most  parts 
of  Japan,  and  in  many  curious  forms.  .  .  .  The  incident 
of  "Riki:Baka"  was  a  personal  experience;  and  I  wrote  it 
down  almost  exactly  as  it  happened,  changing  only  a 
family-name  mentioned  by  the  Japanese  narrator. 

Tokyo,  Japan,  January  20,  1904.  L.   H. 

(4)  Contents: — 
Kwaidan 

The  Story  of  Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi  (Atlantic  Monthly, 

August,  1903.) 
Oshidori 

The  Story  of  O-Tei 
Ubazakura 
Diplomacy 

Of  a  Mirror  and  a  Bell 
Jikininki 


370  Concerning  Lafcadio  Heartt 

Mujina 

Rokuro-Kubi 

A  Dead  Secret 

Yuki-Onna 

The  Story  of  Aoyagi 

Jiu-Roku-Zakura 

The  Dream  of  AkinosukS  (Atlantic  Monthly,  March, 

1904.) 
Riki-Baka 
Hi-Mawari 
Horai 

Insect-Studies 
Butterflies 
Mosquitoes 
Ants 

(5)     Notes  on  the   Illustrations 

The  two  drawings  are  by  the  Japanese  artist,  Keichu 
TakSnouche.  The  frontispiece  illustrates  the  scene  in  the 
story  "Yuki-Onna"  described  on  page  113,  and  the  drawing 
facing  page  180  illustrates  the  Butterfly  Dance,  described 
on  page  203. 

The  Same.  London:  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Company, 
1904,  12mo. 

Articles  and  Reviews: — 

Athenceum,  The,  September  17,  1904,  p.  373. 
Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1904,  vol.  93,  p.  857. 
Bookman,  The,  November,  1904,  vol.  20,  p.  159. 

No.  18. 

1904.  (Japanese  characters.)  JAPAN:  An  Attempt  at 
Interpretation.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn.  Honorary  Member  of 
the  Japan  Society,  London;  formerly  Lecturer  in  the  Im- 
perial University  of  Tokyo  (1896-1903),  and  Fourteen 
Years  a  Resident  of  Japan. 


Bibliography  371 


"Perhaps  all  very  marked  national 
characters  can  be  traced  back  to  a  time 
of  rigid  and  pervading  discipline." 

— Walter  Bagehot. 

New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company.  (London:  Mac- 
millan  &  Company,  Ltd.),  1904,  (Published,  September, 
1904.) 

8vo.,  2  p.  1.,  pp.  541,  colored  frontispiece,  brown  cloth, 
black  and  gold  lettering,  gilt  top. 

(1)     Contents:  — 
I.    Difficulties 
II.     Strangeness  and  Charm 

III.  The  Ancient  Cult 

IV.  The  Religion  of  the  Home 
V.    The  Japanese  Family 

VI.  The  Communal  Cult 

VII.  Developments  of  Shinto 

VIII.  Worship  and  Purification 

IX.  The  Rule  of  the  Dead 

X.  The  Introduction  of  Buddhism 

XI.  The  Higher  Buddhism 

XII.  The  Social  Organization 

XIII.  The  Rise  of  the  Military  Power 

XIV.  The  Religion  of  Loyalty 
XV.  The  Jesuit  Peril 

XVI.  Feudal  Integration 

XVII.  The  Shinto  Revival 

XVIII.  Survivals 

XIX.  Modern  Restraints 

XX.  Official  Education 

XXI.  Industrial  Danger 

XXII.  Reflections 

Bibliographical  Notes 

Index. 

The  Same.    London:  Macmillan  and  Company,  Ltd.,  1904, 


372  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 
Buckley,  Edmund,  The  American  Journal  of  Sociology, 

January,  1905,  vol.  10,  p.  545. 
Griffis,  William  Elliot,  The  Critic,  February,  1905,  vol. 

46,  p.  185. 
Griffis,   William   Elliot,    The  Dial,    December    1,   1904, 

vol.  36,  p.  368. 

Independent,  The,  October  27,  1904,  vol.  57,  p.  976. 
Nation,  The,  December  8,  1904,  vol.  79,  p.  465. 
Public  Opinion,  October  27,  1904,  vol.  37,  p.  537. 
Review  of  Reviews,  November,  1904,  vol.  30,  p.  561. 
Shore,  W.   Teignmouth,   The  Academy,  December  10, 

1904,  vol.  67,  p.  584. 

Spectator,  The,  January  14,  1905,  vol.  94,  p.  54. 
Thurston  S.  J.,  Herbert,  The  Messenger,  January,  1906, 

vol.  45,  p.  1. 

No.  19. 

1905.  THE  ROMANCE  OF  THE  MILKY  WAY  and  Other 
Studies  and  Stories.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn.  Houghton,  Mifflin 
and  Company:  Boston  and  New  York,  1905.  (Published 
October,  1905.) 

12mo.,  pp.  (XIV)  209,  decorated  title-page,  gray  cloth 
with  yellow  trimmings,  yellow  top. 

(V)     Contents:  — 
The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way    (Atlantic  Monthly, 

August,  1905.) 
Goblin  Poetry 
"Ultimate    Questions"    (Atlantic   Monthly,    September, 

1905.) 

The  Mirror  Maiden 
The  Story  of  I  to  Norisuke"  (Atlantic  Monthly,  January, 

1905.) 

Stranger  than  Fiction  (Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1905.) 
A  Letter   from   Japan    (Atlantic  Monthly,   November, 

1904.) 


Bibliography  373 


(VII-XIV)     Introduction  by  F.  G. 

The  Same.  London:  Constable  and  Company,  1905,  Cr. 
8vo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Academy,  The,  December  2,  1905,  vol.  69,  p.  1257. 
Athenceum,  The,  March  31,  1906,  p.  389. 
Dial,  The,  November  1,  1905,  vol.  39,  p.  276. 
Griffis,  W.  E.,  The  Critic,  March,  1906,  vol.  48,  p.  222. 
Independent,  The,  December  21,  1905,  vol.  59,  p.  1478. 
Nation,  The,  December  21,  1905,  vol.  81,  p.  510. 
Outlook,  The,  November  9,  1906,  vol.  84,  p.  503. 

TRANSLATIONS 

No.   20. 

1882.  ONE  OF  CLEOPATRA'S  NIGHTS  and  other  Fan- 
tastic Romances.  By  The"ophile  Gautier.  Faithfully  trans- 
lated by  Lafcadio  Hearn. 

Contents :  — 

One  of  Cleopatra's  Nights 

Clarimonde 

Arria  Marcella:    A  Souvenir  of  Pompeii 

The  Mummy's  Foot 

Omphale:  A  Rococo  Story 

King  Candaules 

New  York:  R.  Worthington,  770  Broadway,  1882. 
8vo.,  pp.  (IX)  321,  red  cloth,  gilt  top.    Head  Gautier  as 
frontispiece. 

(Ill) 
The  love  that  caught  strange  light  from  death's  own 

eyes, 
And  filled  death's  lips  with  fiery  words  and  sighs, 

And  half  asleep,  let  feed  from  veins  of  his, 
Her  close  red  warm  snalce's-mouth,  Egyptian-wise: 


374  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


And  that  great  night  of  love  more  strange  than 

this, 
When  she  that  made  the  whole  world's  bale  and 

bliss 

Made  king  of  the  whole  world's  desire  a  slave 
And  killed  him  in  mid-kingdom  with  a  kiss. 

Swinburne. 
"Memorial  verses  on  the  death  of  Theophile  Gautier" 

(V-IX)     To  the  Reader  (Extract) 

It  is  the  artist,  therefore,  who  must  judge  of  Gautier's 
creations.  To  the  lovers  of  the  loveliness  of  the  antique 
world,  the  lovers  of  physical  beauty  and  artistic  truth, — 
of  the  charm  of  youthful  dreams  and  young  passion  in  its 
blossoming, — of  poetic  ambitions  and  the  sweet  pantheism 
that  finds  all  Nature  vitalized  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Beauti- 
ful,— to  such  the  first  English  version  of  these  graceful 
fantasies  is  offered  in  the  hope  that  it  may  not  be  found 
wholly  unworthy  of  the  original. 

New  Orleans,  1882.  L.  H. 

Pages  317-21  Addenda. 

New  Edition.  New  York:  Brentano's,  1899,  12mo. 
New  Edition.  New  York:  Brentano's,  1906,  12mo. 
CLARIMONDE.  New  York:  Brentano's,  1899,  16mo. 

Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Brandt,   M.   von,  Deutsche  Rundschau,   October,   1900, 

vol.  105,  p.  68. 
Coleman,  Charles  W.,  Jr.,  Harper's  Monthly,  May,  1887, 

vol.  74,  p.  855. 

Dayton  (Ohio)  Journal,  September  30,  1904. 
Literary  World,  The,  February  14,  1891,  vol.  22,  p.  56. 

No.  21. 

1890.     THE  CRIME  OF  SYLVESTRE  BONNARD  (Mem- 
ber of  the  Institute) .    By  Anatole  France.    The  Translation 


Bibliography  375 


and   Introduction   by   Lafcadio    Hearn.      (Publisher's   Vig- 
nette.)    New  York:   Harper  &  Brothers,  Franklin  Square, 
1890. 
8vo.,  pp.  (IX)  281,  paper. 

(V-IX)     Introduction   (Extract) 

But  it  is  not  because  M.  Anatole  France  has  rare  power 
to  create  original  characters,  or  to  reflect  for  us  something 
of  the  more  recondite  literary  life  of  Paris,  that  his  charm- 
ing story  will  live.  It  is  because  of  his  far  rarer  power  to 
deal  with  what  is  older  than  any  art,  and  withal  more 
young,  and  incomparably  more  precious :  the  beauty  of  what 
is  beautiful  in  human  emotion.  And  that  writer  who  touches 
the  spring  of  generous  tears  by  some  simple  story  of  grati- 
tude, of  natural  kindness,  of  gentle  self-sacrifice,  is  surely 
more  entitled  to  our  love  than  the  sculptor  who  shapes  for 
us  a  dream  of  merely  animal  grace,  or  the  painter  who 
images  for  us,  however  richly,  the  young  bloom  of  that 
form  which  is  only  the  husk  of  Being.  L.  H. 

(1.)    Contents: — 
Part  I. 

The  Log 

Part  II. 

The  Daughter  of  Clementine 
The  Fairy 
The  Little  Saint-George 

Articles  and  Reviews: — 

Literary  World,  The,  February  15,  1890,  vol.  21,  p.  59. 


376  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

IV 

TRANSLATIONS    PUBLISHED    IN    THE 
TIMES-DEMOCRAT1 

(Nos.  31-218) 

No.  31.     1.  Crucifying  Crocodiles.    By  Cousot. 

From  Le  Figaro,  February  7. 
No.  32.     2.  The  Last  of  the  Great  Moguls.    By  All. 

From  Le  Nouvelle  Revue,  March  1. 
No.  33.     3.  Killed  by  Rollin's  Ancient  History.     By  Chas. 

Baissac. 
No.  34.     4.  Mohammed  Fripouille.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Yvette." 
No.  35.     5.  The  Eldest  Daughter.    By  Jules  Lemaitre. 

From  Le  Figaro. 

No.  36.     6.  The   Burnt  Rock.     By   "Carmen   Sylva"   Eliza- 
beth, Queen  of  Roumania. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  37.     7.  The  Confession.     By  de  Maupassant. 

From  Contes  du  Jour  et  de  la  Nuit. 
No.  38.     8.  In  the  Mountain  of  Marble.    By  Pierre  Loti. 
No.  39.    9.  A  Story  of  Quinine.    By  Chas.  Baissac. 

From  Recits  Creoles. 

No.  40.     10.  How  Gerard  Resigned  His  Tutorship.    By  Chas. 
Baissac. 

From  Recits  Creoles. 
No.  41.     11.  A  Vendetta.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  Contes  du  Jour  et  de  la  Nuit. 
No.  42.     12.  A  Coward.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  Contes  du  Jour  et  de  la  Nuit. 

TCearn    failed  to  give  the  years  in  which  these  translations  were  pub- 
lished, and  often  also  the  days  and  months. 


Bibliography  377 


No.  43.    13.  The  Titaness.    By  Jules  Lermina. 

From  Le  Figaro,  April  25. 

No.  44.  14.  Reminiscences  of  Gustave  Dore.  By  Albert 
Wolff. 

From  Le  Figaro,  March  2. 
No.  45.     15.  The  Return.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Yvette." 

No.  46.    16.  Two  Friends.    By  Gay  de  Maupassant. 
No.  47.    17.  Moloch,  the   Devourer.     (The   Sacrifice.)     By 

Gustave  Flaubert. 

From  "Salambo,"  Ed.  1880. 
No.  48.     18.  The  Ring.    By  N.  de  Semenow. 

From  Le  Figaro,  August  15. 
No.  49.     19.  The  Phalanx  in  Battle.     By  Gustave  Flaubert 

From  "Salambo,"  Ed.  1880. 
No.  50.     20.  The  Little  Sister.    By  Hector  Malot. 

Novel. 
No.  51.     21.  Riri's  Rag-Picking.    By  Jean  Rameau. 

From  Le  Figaro,  October  31. 

No.  52.  22.  A  Divorced  Man's  New  Year's  Day.  By  Frantz 
Jourdain. 

From  Le  Figaro ,  January  2. 

No.  53.  23.  Especially  Interesting  Apropos  of  the  Comet 
with  the  Sodium  Tail.  By  Camille  Flam- 
marion. 

From  Le  Voltaire,  September  21. 
No.  54.    24.  Eaten  Alive.    By  Camille  Debans. 

From  Le  Figaro,  September  13. 

No.  55.  25.  The  Christmas  Tree.  By  Theodore  Dosto- 
ievsky. 

From  Le  Figaro. 

No.  56.     26.  "A  Madman?"    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  57.     27.  Tourgueneff.     By  Firmin  Javel. 

From  UEvenement,  September  6. 
Tourgueneff.    By  Maurice  Guillemot 

From  Le  Figaro,  September  5. 


378  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


No.  58.     28.  A  Polish  Regiment  under  Fire.     By  Hendrik 
Sienkiewicz. 

From  Nouvelle  Revue. 
No.  59.    29.  In  Oran.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  Au  Soleil. 
No.  60.    30.  En  Voyage.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Miss  Harriet." 
No.  61.    31.  "La  Mere  Sauvage."     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Miss  Harriet." 
No.  62.     32.  The  Adopted  Child.    By  Guy  Maupassant. 

From  "Miss  Harriet." 
No.  63.    33.  The  Child.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Miss  Harriet." 
No.  64.     34.  The  Minuet.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Miss  Harriet." 
No.  65.    35.  My  Uncle  Jules.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Miss  Harriet." 

No.  66.     36.  The  Love  Chamber.     By  Albert  Delpit,  1884. 
No.  67.     37.  The  Chair  Mender.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  68.     38.  Coco.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  69.     39.  A  Parricide.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  70.    40.  The  Red  Wolves.    By  Henry  Leturque. 

From  Le  Figaro,  April  24. 
No.  71.     41.  Suicides.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

"Les  Soeurs  Rondoli." 
No.  72.    42.  The  Cross.    By  Verax. 

From  Le  Figaro,  October  17. 
No.  73.    43.  The  Art  of  Dancing.     By  Ignotus. 

From  Le  Figaro,  March  19. 
No.  74.    44.  Haikona's  Story.     By  Quatrelles. 

From  Le  Figaro,  January  3. 
No.  75.    45.  Forgotten  on  the  Battle  Field. 

From  Le  Figaro,  December  19. 
No.  76.    46.  The  Folly  of  Armaments.     By  P. 

From  UEv6nement,  June  13. 
No.  77.    47.  Japanese  Theatricals.    By  Yedoko. 

From  Le  Figaro,  August  7,  1886. 


Bibliography  379 


No.  78.    48.  On  the  Planet  Mars.    By  Canaille  Flammarion. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  79.    49.  The  Colonel's  Ideas.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Yvette." 
No.  80.     50.  Waterloo.    By  Leon  Cladel. 

From  L'Evenement,  April  26. 
No.  81.    51.  Terrifying  a  King.    By  XXX. 

From  Le  Figaro,  December  9. 

No.  82.    52.  The    Secret    of    the    Scaffold.     By    Comte    de 
Villiers   de   L'Isle-Adam. 

From  Le  Figaro,  October  23. 
No.  83.     53.  Littre  as  a  Physician.    By  Emile  Zola. 

From  Le  Voltaire,  June  5. 
No.  84.    54.  Hugo  and  Littre.    By  Emile  Zola. 

From  Le  Figaro. 

No.  85.    55.  A  Modern  Combat  of  the  Thirty.     By  Vigeant. 
No.  86.     56.  Algerian  Warfare.    By  Ferdinand  Hugonnet. 
No.  87.    57.  Orden's  Redoubt.    By  Adam  Mickiewicz. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  88.     58.  Lasker's  Romance.    By  Aurelien   Scholl. 

From  L'Evenement,  February  26. 
No.  89.     59.  The  Duel.    By  Aurelien  Scholl. 

From  L'Evenement,  March  2. 
No.  90.    60.  The  Wife  of  Sobieski. 

From  Le  Figaro  Supplement,  February  23. 
No.  91.    61.  Redemption.    By  Matilde  Serao. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  92.    62.  The  Rats  of  Paris.    By  Olivier  de  Rawton. 

From  Le  Figaro  Supplement. 

No.  93.    63.  The  Story  of  Tse-I-La.     By  Comte  de  Villiers 
de  1'Isle-Adam. 

From  Le  Figaro  Sunday  Supplement. 
No.  94.    64.  Cremation  in  Paris.    By  Ignotus. 

From  Le  Figaro,  March  6. 
No.  95.    65.  Madame  Auguste's  Lion.     By  Horace  Bertin. 

From  Croguis  de  Province. 


380  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


No.  96.     66.  The  Secret  History  of  "Madame  Bovary."    By 
Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  UEvenement,  January  23. 
No.  97.     67.  Nissa.    By  Albert  Delpit. 

From  Revue  de  Deux  Mondes. 
No.  98.     68.  The  Soudanian  Marseillais. 
No.  99.     69.  Justice  in  the  Soudan.    After  De  Bisson.   1868. 
No.  100.    70.  Eaten  by  a  Lion.    By  Louis  Rousselet 

From  La  Peau  du  Tigre. 
No.  101.     71.  Chanzy.    By  Ignotus. 

From  Le  Figaro,  January  10. 

No.  102.    72.  Notes   on  Von   Moltke.    By  Robert   de   Bon- 
nieres. 

From  Le  Figaro,  August  17. 
No.  103.    73.  The  Hunchback.     By  Chas.  Richard. 

From  Le  Figaro,  August  29. 
No.  104.     74.  The  Pacha  of  Audjelah.     By  H.  Georges. 

From  Le  Figaro,  September  5. 

No.  105.     75.  The  Umbrella.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  106.    76.  Gambling  for  a  Wife.    By  A.  de  Calonne. 

From  Le  Figaro,  January  30. 
No.  107.    77.  Happiness.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  108.    78.  "Schmah  Israel."    By  Sacher  Masoch. 

From     Revue    Politique    et    Litteraire, 

November  7. 

No.  109.     79.  The     Alfa-Gatherer.     By     Lieutenant     Palat. 
("Marcel  Frescaly.") 

From  Le  Figaro,  April  3. 
No.  110.     80.  He.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  111.     81.  'Toine.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  112.     82.  The  Dowry.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  113.     83.  The  Funeral  of  an  Indian  Prince.    By  Guy  de 
Maupassant. 

From  Le  Figaro,  September  7. 

No.  114.    84.  The  Jewelry.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
No.  115.     85.  The  Five  Senses.    By  Harry  Alis. 

From     Revue    Politique    et    Litteraire, 
October  2. 


Bibliography  381 


No.  116.     86.  A  Bombshell.    By  Leon  Tolstoi. 

No.  117.     87.  A  Day  at  Lahore.    By  Robert  de  Bonnieres. 

From  Revue  Politique  et  Litter  air  e. 

No.  118.    88.  Mario,    Marquis    of    Candia.    By    Mario    di 
Candia. 

From  Le  Figaro,  November  24. 
No.  119.    89.  My  Tailor  Abrahamek.     By  Sacher-Masoch. 

From    Revue    Politique    et    Litteraire, 

May  22." 
No.  120.    90.  The  Flesh-Eaters.    By  Olivier  de  Rawton. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  121.     91.  Palabra  Suelta  No  Tiene  Vuelta.    By  Ricardo 

Palma  (Lima,  1880.) 

No.  122.     92.  The  Diva.     By  Luigi  Gualdo. 
No.  123.     93.  The  Story  of  the  Unfortunate  Merchant.     By 

Rene  Bassett. 
No.  124.     94.  Bamba.    By  Eugene  Forgues. 

From  Nouvelle  Revue. 

No.  125.     95.  "Notre  Pere  Qui  Etesaux  Cieux."    By  Charles 
Baissac. 

From  Rtcits  Creoles. 
No.  126.     96.  "Red  Minette."    By  Chas.  Baissac.  ' 

From  Recits  Creoles. 

No.  127.    97.  Fight  at  the  Mill.    By  Emile  Zola. 
No.  128.     98.  Leo  XIII.     By  Roman  Correspondent 

From  Le  Figaro,  February  27. 
No.  129.     99.  The  Carp  Herder.    By  Charles  Richard. 

From  Le  Figaro,  December  15,  1883. 
No.  130.     100.  Fanny  Elssler.    By  Viennese  Correspondent. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  131.    101.  Lola  Montes  and  Ludwig  I.  of  Bavaria.  By  X. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  132.    102.  The  Art  of  Being  a  Bore.     By  "DeFerney." 

From  Le  Voltaire,  January  31. 
No.  133.     103.  Humanity  of  the  Japanese. 

From  U  Illustration. 


382  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


No.  134.    104.  By  the  Balloon  Post.    By  Alexis  Bouvier. 

From  Le  Figaro,  January  29. 

No.  135.     105.  An  Extraordinary  Letter  from  Von  Moltke. 
By  Count  Von  Moltke. 

From  Le  Voltaire,  February  5. 
No.  136.     106.  Chinese  Women.    By  Lydie  Paschkoff. 

From  Le  Figaro. 

No.  137.     107.  A  Haul  at  Madagascar  in   1717.     By  Chas. 
Baissac. 

From  Recits   Creoles. 

No.  138.     108.  Pierrot.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant 
No.  139.     109.  My  Aunt  Minon.     By  Chas.  Baissac. 

From  Recits   Creoles. 

No.  140.    110.  An  Episode  of  the  War  in  Soudan.  By  Victor 
Cherbuliez. 

From  an  address  before  the  Cinq  Acade- 
mies. 

No.  141.     111.  The   Punishment   of   the   Unfaithful   Lover. 
By  Sacher-Masoch. 

From  "The  Mother  of  God." 

No.  142.    112.  The   Sorceress.    The   Comte   d'Avesnes.    By 
Michelet. 

From  "La  Sorciere." 

No.  143.    113.  The  Great  Fiddler  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
By  "L'Homme  Masque." 

From  Le  Voltaire,  October  8. 
No.  144.    114.  The  Duello.     By   Ignotus. 

From  Le  Figaro,  August  31. 

No.  145.    115.  How  Balzac  Found   Names  for  his  Novels. 
By  Leon  Gozlan. 

From  Le  Figaro. 

No.  146.     116.  Tchernyschevsky    and    the    Women    of    Ni- 
hilism.   By  Victor  Tissot. 
From  "Les  Peres  du  Nihilisme,"  in  VII- 

lustration. 

No.  147.     117.  Emile  Zola  on  Style.    By  Emile  Zola. 
From  Le  Figaro. 


Bibliography  383 


No.  148.     118.  The  Man  of  the   XVIth   Century.     By   Vic- 
torien  Sardou. 

From   Le  Figaro,   February   4. 

No.  149.    119.  The  Forest  Growing  in  the  Heart  of  Paris. 
By  Camille  Flammarion. 

From  Le  Voltaire,  June  25. 
No.  150.    120.  The  Tomb  of  Nichelet.     By  An  Old  Parisian. 

From  Le  Figaro,  July  10. 
No.  151.    121.  A  Master  Wizard.     By  Un  Vieux  Parisien. 

From  Le  Figaro,  October  6. 

No.  152.    122.  By  Rail  Across  the  Sahara.    By  Charles  de 
Maurceley. 

From  Le  Voltaire,  January  23  and  27. 
No.  153.     123.  In  the  House  of  Mahomet.     By  Ignotus. 

From  Le  Figaro,  October  20. 

No.  154.     124.  The  Chinese  in  Pnom-Penh,  Cambodia.     By 
Albert  de  Chenclos. 

From  La  Revue  Liberate. 
No.  155.     125.  Algeria.     By  Ignotus. 

From  Le  Figaro,  June  15. 
No.  156.    126.  The  Drum.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Contes  de  la  B6casse." 
No.  157.     127.  Henry  Charles  Read.    By  Maxime  du  Camp. 

From  "Souvenirs  Litteraires." 

No.  158.    128.  Recollections  of  Baudelaire.    By  Maxime  du 
Camp. 

From  "Souvenirs  Litteraires." 
No.  159.     129.  A  Converted  Libertine.    By  Ricardo  Palma. 

(Lima,  1880.) 

No.  160.    130.  Women    of   Fashionable   Paris    Society.    By 
Emile  Zola. 

From  Le  Figaro,  June  27. 
No.  161.    131.  La  Parisienne.    By  Adrien  Marx. 

From  Le  Figaro,  May  13. 

No.  162.     132.  At  Sea.     By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 
From   "Contes  de  la  Becasse." 


384  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


No.  163.     133.  "Aunt  Ess."     By  Arnold  Mortier. 

Prom   Le  Figaro's   "Contes   d'Ete,"   Au- 
gust 23. 
No.  164.    134.  Pasteur. 

From  Le  Figaro,   November   23. 
No.  165.     135.  A  Ghost.     By  Parisis. 

Prom  Le  Voltaire,  October  23. 
No.  166.    136.  Matrimonial  Agencies  at  Paris.    By  Ignotus. 

Prom  Le  Figaro,  April  20. 
No.  167.    137.  Liszt.    By  Ignotus. 

From  Le  Figaro,  May  25. 

No.  168.    138.  The   Stranglers   of   Paris,    etc.     By    George 
Grison. 

From  Le  Figaro,  May  23. 
No.  169.     139.  The  Lights  of  the  Wedding.    By  R.  M. 

From  La  Epoca,  January  10. 

No.  170.     140.  The   Foundation   of   Skadra    (Scutari.)     By 
W.  Stephanowitsch. 

From  French  translation. 

No.  171.     141.  The    Last    Hideous    Days    of    the    Flatters 
Mission. 

From  Le  Figaro,  September  23. 
No.  172.    142.  The  Two  Neighbors.    By  Julia  de  Asensi. 

From  La  Epoca,  April  18. 
No.  173.    143.  Candita.    By  "Almaviva." 

From  La  Epoca,  October  18. 
No.  174.     144.  A  Drunken  Lion.    By  Hector  de  Callias. 

From  Le  Figaro,  June  30. 

No.  175.     145.  The    Song   of  Love   Triumphant.     By   Ivan 
Tourgueneff. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  176.    146.  A  Rich  Man's  Death.    By  Emile  Zola. 

From  Le  Figaro,  August  1. 
No.  177.     147.  Germanillo.    By  "Juan  Manuel  de  Capua." 

From  La  Epoca,  December  27. 
No.  178.    148.  Simon's  Papa.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "La  Maison  Tellier." 


Bibliography  385 


No.  179.     149.  "Las    Hechas    Y    For    Hacer."    By   Ricardo 

Palma  (Lima,  1879.) 
No.  180.     150.  The  Bishop's  Twenty  Thousand  Godos.     By 

Ricardo  Palma. 
No.  181.     151.  "Los  Postres  del  Festin."  By  Ricardo  Palma. 

From  La  Raza  Latina,  February  29. 
No.  182.     152.  The  Blessed  Bread.     By  Frangois  Coppee. 

From  Le  Figaro,  March  6. 

No.  183.     153.  The     Invitation     to     Sleep.       By     Francois 
Coppee. 

From  Le  Figaro's  "Contes  d'EteY' 
No.  184.     154.  Cousin  Rosa.     By  "Almaviva." 

From  La  Epoca,  March  17. 

No.  185.     155.  The     Chemise     of     Margarita     Pareja.      By 
Ricardo  Palma. 

From  La  Raza  Latina. 
No.  186.     156.  The  Just  Man.    By  F.  Luzel. 

From  Luzel's  Collection. 

No.  187.     157.  Saint  Peter's  Betrothed.     By  De  Luzel. 
No.  188.     158.  Fantic  Loho.     By  Luzel. 

From  "Breton  Legends." 

No.  189.     159.  The  Adventures  of  Walter  Schnaffs.    By  Guy 
de  Maupassant. 

From  "Contes  de  la  Becasse." 
No.  190.    160.  L'Abandounado.     By  Rene"  Maizeroy. 

From  "The  Love  That  Bleeds." 
No.  191.     161.  Flaubert  at  Sparta.    By  Maxime  du  Camp. 

From  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 

No.  192.     162.  Daddy     Goat     and     Daddy     Tiger.    By     Pa 
Lindor. 

From  Le  Courrier  des  Opelousas. 
No.  193.    163.  The  Great  Chinese  Vase.    By  Edmond  de  L. 

From  Le  Figaro,  February  17. 

No.  194.    164.  The    Two    Porcelain    Vases.       By    Charles 
Richard. 

From  Le  Figaro. 


386  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

No.  195.     165.  A    Bit   of    Jewish    Folk    Lore.     By    Leopold 
Kompert. 

From  "Scenes  du  Ghetto." 

No.  196.     166.  A     Story     of     the     Ghetto.      By     Leopold 
Kompert. 

From  "Scenes  du  Ghetto." 

No.  197.    167.  A  Legend  of  Rabbi  Loeb.    By  Daniel  Stauben. 
No.  198.     168.  Loulou.     By   Lucien   Griveau. 
No.  199.    169.  The  Cabecilla;   a  Story  of  the  Carlist  War. 

By  Alphonse  Daudet. 

No.  200.    170.  Tried,  Condemned,  Executed.     By  P.  Didier. 
No.  201.     171.  The     Man     with     the     Golden     Brain.       By 
Alphonse  Daudet. 

From  "Ballades  en  Prose." 

No.  202.    172.  The    Death    of    the    Dauphin,    etc.     By    Al- 
phonse Daudet 
No.  203.     173.  My  First  Duel.    By  Carle  de  Perri&res. 

From    "Paris-Joyeux." 

No.  204.     174.  My  Two  Cats.     By  Emile  Zola. 
No.  205.     175.  The  Khouans.    By  N.  Ney. 

From  L' Illustration,  July  30. 
No.  206.     176.  The  Dead  Wife. 

After     S.     Juhens'     French     translation 

from  Chinese. 
No.  207.     177.     Scenes   of   Polish  Life.    By  Krazewski. 

From  "Jermola"  Le  Figaro. 

No.  208.     178.  Memory  of  Algeria.    By  Alphonse  Daudet. 
From  "Tartarin  de  Tarascon,"  Nouvelle 

Revue. 

No.  209.     179.  Anecdote  of  Baudelaire.     "Les  Fantaisites." 
By  Pierre  Quiroul. 

From  Le  Figaro,  August  15. 
No.  210.     180.  Adelaide  Neilson. 

From  L' Illustration,  August  21. 

No.  211.     181.  A  Morning  with  Baudelaire.     By  "Theodore 
de  Grave." 


Bibliography  387 


No.  212.     182.  "L'Enfant  de  la  Balle."    By  Francois  Coppge. 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  213.     183.  Poetical  Illusions.     By  Maxime  du  Camp. 

From  "Souvenirs  Litteraires." 

No.  214.     184.  The   Moon's   Blessings.     By   Charles   Baude- 
laire. 

No.  215.     185.  Patti    and    Her    New    Home.    By    "Adrien 
Marx." 

From  Le  Figaro. 
No.  216.     186.  The  Ghostly  Mass.    By  Luzel. 

From  "Veillees  Bretonnes." 
No.  217.     187.  Solitude.    By  Guy  de  Maupassant. 

From  "Monsieur  Parent." 
No.  218.  "Fantastics." 

1.  "Aida."  2.  Hiouen-Thsang.  3.  El  Vomito.  (?)  4. 
The  Devil's  Carbuncle.  5.  A  Hemisphere  in  a  Woman's 
Hair.  6.  The  Clock.  7.  The  Fool  and  Venus.  8.  The 
Stranger. 

No.  219.  The  winter  of  1877,  Mr.  Hearn  contributed 
from  New  Orleans,  a  series  of  letters  to  the  Cincinnati 
Commercial  under  the  name  of  "Ozias  Midwinter." 


V 

MAGAZINE   STORIES   AND   PAPERS   IN 
CHRONOLOGICAL  ORDER1 

(Nos.  220-275) 

No.  220.      The  Scenes  of  Cable's  Romances. 

The  Century  Magazine,  November,   1883,  vol. 

27,  (N.  S.  Vol.  5),  p.  40. 
No.  221.     Quaint  New  Orleans  and  its  Habitants. 

Harper's  Weekly,  December  6,   1884,  vol.  28, 
p.  812. 

xlf  published  also  in  book-form,  the  title  of  the  book  is  given. 


388  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

No.  222.     New  Orleans  Exposition. 

Harper's    Weekly,    January   3,    1885,   vol.    29, 

p.  14. 
No.  223.     The  Creole  Patois. 

Harper's  Weekly,  January  10,  1885,  vol.   29, 

p.  27. 
No.  224.     The  Creole  Patois. 

Harper's  Weekly,   January   17,   1885,  vol.   29, 

p.  43. 
No.  225.    New  Orleans  Exposition. 

Harper's  Weekly,  January   31,   1885,  vol.   29, 

p.  71. 
No.  226.    The  East  at  New  Orleans. 

Harper's    Weekly,    March    7,    1885,    vol.    29, 

p.  155. 
No.  227.     Mexico  at  New  Orleans. 

Harper's    Weekly,    March    14,    1885,    vol.    29, 

p.  167. 

No.  228.     The    New    Orleans    Exposition.     Some    Oriental 
Curiosities. 
Harper's    Bazaar,    March    28,    1885,    vol.    18, 

p.   201. 

No.  229.    The     New     Orleans     Exposition.    Notes     of     a 
Curiosity  Hunter. 

Harper's  Bazaar,  April  4,  1885,  vol.  18,  p.  218. 
No.  230.    The  Government  Exhibit  at  New  Orleans. 

Harper's    Weekly,    April    11,    1885,    vol.    29, 

p.  234. 

No.  231.    The   Legend    of   Tchi-Niu.     A   Chinese    Story   of 
Filial  Piety. 

Harper's   Bazaar,    October    31,    1885,    vol.    18, 

p.  703.     "Some  Chinese  Ghosts,"  1887. 
No.  232.     The  Last  of  the  Voudoos. 

Harper's  Weekly,  November  7,  1885,  vol.  29, 
p.  726. 


Bibliography  389 


No.  233.     New  Orleans  Superstitions. 

Harper's    Weekly,    December    25,    1886',    vol. 

30,  p.  843. 

No.  234.    Rabyah's  Last  Ride.     A  tradition  of  Pre-Islamic 
Arabia. 

Harper's  Bazaar,  April  2,  1887,  vol.  20,  p.  239. 

No.  235.    Chita. 

Harper's  Monthly,  April,  1888,  vol.  76,  p.  733. 

"Chita,"  1890. 
No.  236.     A  Midsummer  Trip  to  the  West  Indies. 

Harper's  Monthly,  July-September,  1888,  vol. 
77,  pp.  209,  327,  G14.  "Two  Years  in  the 
French  West  Indies,"  1890. 

No.  237.     La  Verette  and  the  Carnival  in  St.  Pierre,  Mar- 
tinique. 

Harper's  Monthly,   October,   1888,   vol.   77,   p. 
737.     "Two  Years  in  the  French  West  In- 
dies." 1890. 
No.  238.     Les  Porteuses. 

Harper's  Monthly,  July,  1889,  vol.  79,  p.  299. 
"Two   Years   in   the   French   West   Indies," 
1890. 
No.  239.     At  Grand  Anse. 

Harper's    Monthly,    November,    1889,    vol.    79, 
p.   844.     "Two   Years   in   the  French   West 
Indies,"  1890. 
No.  240.     A  Ghost. 

Harper's    Monthly,    December,    1889,    vol.    80, 

p.  116. 
No.  241.     Youma. 

Harper's  Monthly,  January-February,  1890,  vol. 

80,    pp.    218,    408.     "Youma,"    1890. 
No.  242.     Karma. 

Lippincott's  Magazine,  May,  1890,  vol.   45,  p. 

667. 

No.  243.     A  Study  of  Half-Breed  Races  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  Cosmopolitan,  June,  1890,  vol.  9,  p.  167. 


390  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


No.  244.     West  Indian  Society  of  Many  Colorings. 

The  Cosmopolitan,  July,  1890,  vol.  9,  p.  337. 
No.  245.    A  Winter  Journey  to  Japan. 

Harper's   Monthly,   November,    1890,   vol.    81, 

p.  860. 
No.  246.    At  the  Market  of  the  Dead. 

Atlantic   Monthly,    September,    1891,   vol.    68, 
p.    382.     "Glimpses    of   Unfamiliar   Japan." 
1894. 
No.  247.    The  Chief  City  of  the  Province  of  the  Gods. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1891,  vol.  68,  p. 
621.     "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan."  1894. 
No.  248.     The  Most  Ancient   Shrine  in  Japan. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1891,  vol.  68,  p. 
780.    "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan,"  1894. 
No.  249.    In  a  Japanese  Garden. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  July,  1892,  vol.  70,  p.   14. 

"Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan."  1894. 
No.  250.     Of  a  Dancing  Girl. 

Atlantic    Monthly,    March,    1893,    vol.    71,    p. 
332.    "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan,"  1894. 
No.  251.     The  Japanese  Smile. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1893,  vol.  71,  p.  634. 

"Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan,"  1894. 
No.  252.     Of  the  Eternal  Feminine. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1893,  vol.  72,  p. 

761.    "Out  of  the  East,"  1895. 
No.  253.     The  Red  Bridal. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  July,   1894,  vol.   74,  p.   74. 

"Out  of  the  East,"  1895. 
No.  254.    At  Hakata. 

Atlantic   Monthly,    October,    1894,    vol.    74,    p. 

510.    "Out  of  the  East,"  1895. 
No.  255.     From  my  Japanese  Diary. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1894,  vol.  74,  p. 
609. 


Bibliography  391 


No.  256.    A  Wish  Fulfilled. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  January,   1895,   vol.   75,  p. 

90.    "Out  of  the  East,"  1895. 
No.  257.     In  the  Twilight  of  the  Gods. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1895,  vol.  75,  p.  791. 

"Kokoro,"  1896. 
No.  258.    The  Genius  of  Japanese.  Civilization. 

Atlantic   Monthly,   October,   1895,   vol.    76,   p. 

449.    "Kokoro,"  1896. 
No.  259.    After  the  War. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1895,  vol.  76.  p. 

599.     "Kokoro,"  1896. 
No.  260.    Notes  from  a  Travelling  Diary. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1895,  vol.  76,  p. 

815.    "Kokoro,"  1896. 
No.  261.    China  and  the  Western  World. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1896,  vol.  77,  p,  450. 
No.  262.    A  Trip  to  Kyoto. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1896,  vol.  77,  p.   613. 
.      "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields,"  1897. 
No.  263.     About  Faces  in  Japanese  Art. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1896,  vol.  78,  p.  219. 

"Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields,"  1897, 
No.  264.    Out  of  the  Street:   Japanese  Folk-Songs. 

Atlantic   Monthly,    September,    1896,   vol.    78, 
p.  347.     "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields,"  1897. 
No.  265.     Dust. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1896,  vol.  78,  p. 

642.     "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields,"  1897. 
No.  266.     A  Living  God. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1896,  vol.  78,  p. 

833.    "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields,"  1897. 
No.  267.     Notes  of  a  Trip  to  Izumo. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  May,   1897,  vol.   79,  p.  678. 
No.  268.     The  Story  of  Mimi-Nashi  Hai'chi. 

Atlantic   Monthly,    August,    1903,   vol.   92,   p. 
237.    "Kwaidan,"  1904. 


392  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


No.  269.    The  Dream  of  Akinosuke". 

Atlantic   Monthly,    March,    1904,    vol.    93,    p. 

340.    "Kwaidan,"  1904. 
No.  270.    A  Letter  from  Japan. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1904,  vol.  94,  p. 
625.    "The   Romance   of   the   Milky   Way," 
1905. 
No.  271.     The  Story  of  Ito  Norisuke\ 

Atlantic  Monthly,  January,   1905,  vol.   95,  p. 
98.    "The    Romance    of    the    Milky    Way," 
1905. 
No.  272.     Stranger  than  Fiction. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1905,  vol.  95,  p.  494. 

"The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way,"  1905. 
No.  273.    The   Romance   of   the   Milky   Way. 

Atlantic   Monthly,   August,    1905,   vol.    96,   p. 
238.    "The   Romance   of   the    Milky   Way," 
1905. 
No.  274.    Ultimate  Questions. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1905,  vol.  96,  p. 
391.    "The   Romance    of   the   Milky   Way," 
1905. 
No.  275.    Two  Memories  of  a  Childhood. 

Atlantic  Monthly,   October,   1906,   vol.   98,   p. 
445. 


VI 

ARTICLES    BY    HEARN    TRANSLATED    IN 
FOREIGN    MAGAZINES 

(Nos.  276-280) 

No.  276.     Le  Sourire  japonais. 

Traduction  de  Madame  L6on  Raynal,  Revue 
de  Paris,  July  15,  1900,  Year  7,  vol.  4,  p.  429. 


Bibliography  393 


No.  277.     Une  Danseuse  japonais. 

Traduction  de  Madame  Leon  Raynal.     Revue 
de  Paris,  March  15,  1901,  Year  8,  vol.  2,  p. 
330. 
No.  278.     Le  Nirvana,  6tude  de  Bouddhisme  Synthetique. 

Traduite  par  M.  &  Mme.  Charles-Marie  Gar- 
nier,  Revue  de  M-ctaphysique  et  de  Morale, 
1903,  Year  11,  p.  352. 
No.  279.     Kitsonne   (superstition  japonaise). 

Traduction  de  Madame  Leon  Raynal,  Revue 
de  Paris,  November   1,   1903,  Year   10,  vol. 
6,  p.  188. 
No.  280.     Cimetieres  et  Temples  japonais  (Jizo). 

Traduction  de  Madame  Leon  Raynal,  Revue 
de  Paris,  April  15,  1904,  Year  11,  vol.  2, 
p.  829. 


VII 
UNPUBLISHED    WORKS 

(Nos.  281-282) 

No.  281 

1885.  AVATAR.  Par  Gautier,  Translation  by  Lafcadio 
Hearn.  Unable  to  find  a  publisher,  Hearn  destroyed  the 
manuscript. 

No.  282 

THE  TEMPTATION  OF  ST.  ANTHONY,  by  Gustave 
Flaubert;  translated  from  the  Fifth  Paris  Edition,  Vols. 
I-II.  (Manuscript  copy  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Gould.) 
The  half-page  containing,  at  one  time,  probably,  the  trans- 
lator's name,  is  cut  off.  The  title-page  is  preceded  by  a 
half-page,  printed,  of  directions  to  the  printer,  regarding 
size  of  type,  etc. 


394  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


The  volumes  are  6  x  9Mj  inches,  opening  at  the  end. 
The  writing  is  in  pencil,  and  the  letters  large,  even  for 
an  ordinary  handwriting,  but  remarkably  so  for  that  of 
Hearn,  who,  when  writing  with  a  pen,  made  his  letters 
very  small.  The  paper  has  the  yellow  tint  habitually  used 
by  him. 

Volume  I.  contains  364  pages;  Volume  II.,  numbered  con- 
secutively, the  balance  of  a  total  of  679  pages.  Five 
pages  of  addenda  follow,  containing  notes  upon  passages, 
with  original  texts,  etc.,  which  the  American  publisher 
would  hardly  dare  to  put  forth. 

Hearn's  synopsis  (printed)  of  the  "St.  Anthony"  accom- 
panies the  text  of  the  translation,  and  is  reproduced  here- 
with:— 

ARGUMENT 
Frailty 

Sunset  in  the  desert.  Enfeebled  by  prolonged  fasting, 
the  hermit  finds  himself  unable  to  concentrate  his  mind 
upon  holy  things.  His  thoughts  wander:  memories  of 
youth  evoke  regrets  that  his  relaxed  will  can  no  longer 
find  strength  to  suppress; — and,  remembrance  begetting  re- 
membrance, his  fancy  leads  him  upon  dangerous  ground. 
He  dreams  of  his  flight  from  home, — of  Ammonaria,  his 
sister's  playmate, — of  his  misery  in  the  waste,— his  visit 
to  Alexandria  with  the  blind  monk  Didymus,— the  unholy 
sights  of  the  luxurious  city. 

Involuntarily  he  yields  to  the  nervous  dissatisfaction 
growing  upon  him.  He  laments  his  solitude,  his  joyless- 
ness,  his  poverty,  the  obscurity  of  his  life:  grace  departs 
from  him;  hope  burns  low  within  his  heart.  Suddenly 
revolting  against  his  weakness,  he  seeks  refuge  from  dis- 
traction in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures. 

Vain  effort!  An  invisible  hand  turns  the  leaves,  placing 
perilous  texts  before  his  eyes.  He  dreams  of  the  Mac- 
cabees slaughtering  their  enemies,  and  desires  that  he 
might  do  likewise  with  the  Arians  of  Alexandria;— he  be- 


Bibliography  395 


comes  inspired  with  admiration  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar;  — 
he  meditates  voluptuously  upon  the  visit  of  Sheba's  queen 
to  Solomon; — discovers  a  text  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
antagonistic  to  principles  of  monkish  asceticism, — indulges 
in  reveries  regarding  the  riches  of  the  Biblical  Kings  and 
holy  men.  The  Tempter  comes  to  tempt  him  with  evil 
hallucinations  for  which  the  Saint's  momentary  frailty  has 
paved  the  way;  and  with  the  Evil  One  comes  also — 

The  Seven  Deadly  Sins 

Phantom  gold  is  piled  up  to  excite  Covetousness; 
shadowy  banquets  appear  to  evoke  Gluttony.  The  scene 
shifts  to  aid  the  temptations  of  Anger  and  of  Pride.  .  .  . 

Anthony  finds  himself  in  Alexandria,  at  the  head  of  a 
wild  army  of  monks  slaughtering  the  heretics  and  the 
pagans,  without  mercy  for  age  or  sex.  In  fantastic  obedi- 
ence to  the  course  of  his  fancy  while  reading  the  Scriptures 
a  while  before,  and  like  an  invisible  echo  of  his  evil 
thoughts,  the  scene  changes  again.  Alexandria  is  trans- 
formed into  Constantinople. 

Anthony  finds  himself  the  honored  of  the  Emperor.  He 
beholds  the  vast  circus  in  all  its  splendor,  the  ocean  of 
faces,  the  tumult  of  excitement.  Simultaneously  he  be- 
holds his  enemies  degraded  to  the  condition  of  slaves,  toil- 
ing in  the  stables  of  Constantine.  He  feels  joy  in  the 
degradation  of  the  Fathers  of  Nicea.  Then  all  is  trans- 
formed. 

It  is  no  longer  the  splendor  of  Constantinople  he  be- 
holds under  the  luminosity  of  a  Greek  day;  but  the 
prodigious  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar  by  night.  He  be- 
holds the  orgies,  the  luxuries,  the  abominations; — and  the 
spirit  of  Pride  enters  triumphantly  into  him  as  the  spirit 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  .  .  . 

Awakening  as  from  a  dream,  he  finds  himself  again  before 
his  hermitage.  A  vast  caravan  approaches,  halts;  and  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  descends  to  tempt  the  Saint  with  the  dead- 


396  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


liest  of  all  temptations.  Her  beauty  is  enhanced  by  Oriental 
splendor  of  adornment;  her  converse  is  a  song  of  witch- 
craft. The  Saint  remains  firm.  .  .  .  The  Seven  Deadly 
Sins  depart  from  him. 

The  Heresiarchs 

But  now  the  tempter  assumes  a  subtler  form.  Under 
the  guise  of  a  former  disciple  of  Anthony, — Hilarion, — the 
demon,  while  pretending  to  seek  instruction  seeks  to 
poison  the  mind  of  Anthony  with  hatred  of  the  fathers 
of  the  church.  He  repeats  all  the  scandals  amassed  by 
ecclesiastical  intriguers,  all  the  calumnies  created  by 
malice; — he  cites  texts  only  to  foment  doubt,  and  quotes 
the  Evangels  only  to  make  confusion.  Under  the  pretext 
of  obtaining  mental  enlightenment  from  the  wisest  of 
men,  he  induces  Anthony  to  enter  with  him  into  a  spectral 
basilica,  wherein  are  assembled  all  the  Heresiarchs  of 
the  third  century.  The  hermit  is  confounded  by  the 
multitude  of  tenets, — horrified  by  the  blasphemies  and 
abominations  of  Elkes,  Corpocrates,  Valentinus,  Manes, 
Cerdo, — disgusted  by  the  perversions  of  the  Paternians, 
Marcosians,  Serpentians, — bewildered  by  the  apocryphal 
Gospels  of  Eve  and  of  Judas,  of  the  Lord  and  of  Thomas. 

And  Hilarion  grows  taller. 

The  Martyrs 

Anthony  finds  himself  in  the  dungeons  of  a  vast 
amphitheatre,  among  Christians  condemned  to  the  wild 
beasts.  By  this  hallucination  the  tempter  would  prove 
to  the  Saint  that  martyrdom  is  not  always  suffered  for 
purest  motives.  Anthony  finds  the  martyrs  possessed  of 
bigotry  and  insincerity.  He  sees  many  compelled  to  die 
against  their  will;  many  who  would  forswear  their  faith 
could  it  avail  them  aught.  He  beholds  heretics  die  for  their 
heterodoxy  more  nobly  than  orthodox  believers. 

He  finds  himself  transported  to  the  tombs  of  the  martyrs. 
He  witnesses  the  meeting  of  Christian  women  at  the 


Bibliography  397 


sepulchres.  He  beholds  the  touching  ceremonies  of  prayer 
change  into  orgie, — lamentations  give  place  to  amorous 
dalliance. 

The  Magicians 

Then  the  Tempter  seeks  to  shake  Anthony's  faith  in 
the  excellence  and  evidence  of  miracles.  He  assumes  the 
form  of  a  Hindoo  Brahmin,  terminating  a  life  of  wondrous 
holiness  by  self-cremation; — he  appears  as  Simon  Magus 
and  Helen  of  Tyre, — as  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  greatest  of  all 
thaumaturgists,  who  claim  superiority  to  Christ.  All  the 
marvels  related  by  Philostratus  are  embodied  in  the  con- 
verse of  Apollonius  and  Damis. 

The  Gods 

Hilarion  reappears,  taller  than  ever,  growing  more  gigan- 
tic in  proportion  to  the  increasing  weakness  of  the  Saint. 
Standing  beside  Anthony  he  evokes  all  the  deities  of  the 
antique  world.  They  defile  before  him  a  marvelous  pan- 
orama;— Gods  of  Egypt  and  India,  Chaldea  and  Hellas, 
Babylon  and  Ultima  Thule, — monstrous  and  multiform, 
phallic  and  ithyphallic,  fantastic  and  obscene.  Some  in- 
toxicate by  their  beauty;  others  appal  by  their  foulness. 
The  Buddha  recounts  the  story  of  his  wondrous  life; 
Venus  displays  the  rounded  daintiness  of  her  nudity;  Isis 
utters  awful  soliloquy.  Lastly  the  phantom  of  Jehovah 
appears,  as  the  shadow  of  a  god  passing  away  forever. 

Suddenly  the  stature  of  Hilarion  towers  to  the  stars; 
he  assumes  the  likeness  and  luminosity  of  Lucifer;  he 
announces  himself  as — 

Science 

And  Anthony  is  lifted  upon  mighty  wings  and  borne 
away  beyond  the  world,  above  the  solar  system,  above 
the  starry  arch  of  the  Milky  Way.  All  future  discoveries 
of  Astronomy  are  revealed  to  him.  He  is  tempted  by  the 
revelation  of  innumerable  worlds, — by  the  refutation  of  all 


398  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


his  previous  ideas  of  the  nature  of  the  Universe, — by  the 
enigmas  of  infinity, — by  all  the  marvels  that  conflict  with 
faith.  Even  in  the  night  of  the  Immensity  the  demon  re- 
news the  temptation  of  reason;  Anthony  wavers  upon 
the  verge  of  pantheism. 

Lust  and  Death 

Anthony  abandoned  by  the  spirit  of  Science  comes  to 
himself  in  the  desert.  Then  the  Tempter  returns  under 
a  two-fold  aspect:  as  the  Spirit  of  Fornication  and  the 
Spirit  of  Destruction.  The  latter  urges  him  to  suicide, — 
the  former  to  indulgence  of  sense.  They  inspire  him  with 
strong  fancies  of  palingenesis,  of  the  illusion  of  death,  of 
the  continuity  of  life.  The  pantheistic  temptation  in- 
tensifies. 

The  Monsters 

Anthony  in  reveries  meditates  upon  the  monstrous 
symbols  painted  upon  the  walls  of  certain  ancient  temples. 
Could  he  know  their  meaning  he  might  learn  also  some- 
thing of  the  secret  lien  between  Matter  and  Thought. 
Forthwith  a  phantasmagoria  of  monsters  commence  to  pass 
before  his  eyes: — the  Sphinx  and  the  Chimera,  the 
Blemmyes  and  Astomi,  the  Cynocephali  and  all  creatures 
of  mythologic  creation.  He  beholds  the  fabulous  beings 
of  Oriental  imagining, — the  abnormities  described  by  Pliny 
and  Herodotus, — the  fantasticalities  to  be  adopted  later  by 
heraldry, — the  grotesqueries  of  future  medieval  illumina- 
tion made  animate; — the  goblinries  and  foulnesses  of  super- 
stitious fancy, — the  Witches'  Sabbath  of  abominations. 

Metamorphosis 

The  multitude  of  monsters  melts  away;  the  land  changes 
into  an  Ocean;  the  creatures  of  the  briny  abysses  appear. 
And  the  waters  in  turn  also  change;  seaweeds  are  trans- 
formed to  herbs,  forests  of  coral  give  place  to  forests  of 


Bibliography  399 


trees,  polypous  life  changes  to  vegetation.  Metals  crys- 
tallize; frosts  effloresce,  plants  become  living  things,  in- 
animate matter  takes  animate  form,  monads  vibrate,  the 
pantheism  of  nature  makes  itself  manifest.  Anthony  feels 
a  delirious  desire  to  unite  himself  with  the  Spirit  of  Univer- 
sal Being.  .  .  . 

The  vision  vanishes.  The  sun  arises.  The  face  of 
Christ  is  revealed.  The  temptation  has  passed;  Anthony 
kneels  in  prayer.  L.  H. 


VIII 
BOOKS  ABOUT  HEARN 

(Nos.  283-284) 

No.  283. 

1906.  THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  LAFCADIO 
HEARN.  By  Elizabeth  Bisland.  With  Illustrations.  In 
two  volumes.  (Publisher's  Vignette)  Boston  and  New 
York:  Hough  ton,  Mifflin  and  Company  (The  Riverside  Press, 
Cambridge),  1906. 

8vo.,  2  vols.,  pp.  (VIII),  475,  554,  black  cloth,  Japanese 
characters  on  small  red  disk,  gold  lettering,  gilt  top. 

Volume  I. 
(V-VIII)  Preface  by  E.  B. 

Contents :  — 

Introductory  Sketch 
I.  Boyhood 
II.  The  Artist's  Apprenticeship. 

III.  The  Master  Workman 

IV.  The  Last  Stage 

Letters 


400  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

List  of  Illustrations. 

Volume  II. 
List  of  Illustrations. 
Letters  (continued) 
Pages  519-529  Appendix. 
Pages  533-554  Index. 
Articles  and  Reviews:  — 

Academy,  The,  January  26,  1907,  vol.  72,  p.  88. 
Athenaum,  The,  February  2,  1907,  p.  126. 
Current  Literature,  January,  1907,  vol.   42,  p.   49. 
Dunbar,  Olivia  Howard,  North  American  Review,  Feb- 
ruary 15,   1907,  vol.   184,  p.   417. 
Greenslet,    Ferris,   Atlantic   Monthly,    February,    1907, 

vol.  99,  p.  261. 
Godkin,  F.  W.,  The  Dial,  December  16,  1906,  vol.   41, 

p.  447. 
Huneker,  James,  New  York  Times,  The,  December  1, 

1906,  vol.  11,  p.  817. 

Nation,  The,  November  29,  1906,  vol.  83,  p.  464. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  The,  December  1,  1906. 
New  York  Tribune,  The,  December  5,  1906. 
Tunison,  J.  S.,  Dayton  (Ohio)  Journal,  The,  December 
25,  1906. 

No.  284 

1907.  LETTERS  FROM  THE  RAVEN,  being  the  Cor- 
respondence of  Lafcadio  Hearn  with  Henry  Watkin  with 
Introduction  and  critical  comment  by  the  editor,  Milton 
Bronner.  (Vignette  drawing  of  the  Raven.)  New  York: 
Brentano's,  1907. 

12mo.,  pp.  201,  half  cloth  brown.  Ornamental  black  and 
gold  back,  gilt  top. 

Contents: — 

Introduction 

Letters  from  the  Raven 

Letters  to  a  Lady 

Letters  of  Ozias  Midwinter 


Bibliography  401 


IX 

ARTICLES    AND    CRITICAL    REVIEWS 
ABOUT    HEARN 

(Nos.  285-388) 

ACADEMY,  The 

No.  285.  A  review  of  "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields,"  No- 
vember 13,  1897,  vol.  52,  p.  395. 

No.  286.  "Koizumi  Yakumo — Lafcadio  Hearn"  by  N.  C., 
April  13,  1901,  vol.  60,  p.  328. 

No.  287.  Sketch  and  list  of  works,  October  8,  1904,  vol. 
67,  p.  305. 

No.  288.  A  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Inter- 
pretation," by  W.  Teignmouth  Shore,  De- 
cember 10,  1904,  vol.  67,  p.  584. 

No.  289.  A  review  of  "The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way," 
December  2,  1905,  vol.  69,  p.  1257. 

No.  290.  A  review  of  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lafcadio 
Hearn,"  January  26,  1907,  vol.  72,  p.  88. 

AMENOMORI,  NOBUSHIGE 

No.  291.  Atlantic  Monthly,  "Lafcadio  Hearn,  the  Man," 
October,  1905,  vol.  96,  p.  510. 

AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY,  The 
No.  292.     A  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Interpreta- 
tion," by  Edmund  Buckley  of  the  University 
of  Chicago,  January,  1905,  vol.  10,  p.  545. 

AMERICAN   MONTHLY   REVIEW   OF  REVIEWS,   The 
No.  293.     "Lafcadio  Hearn,  Interpretator  of  Japan,"  No- 
vember, 19CF4,  vol.  30,  p.  561. 

ATHENAEUM,  The 

No.  294.     A  review  of  "Youma,"  August  30,  1890,  p.  284. 
No.  295.     A  review  of  "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan," 
November  10,  1894,  p.  634. 


402  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

No.  296.  A  review  of  "Out  of  the  East,"  August  24, 
1895,  p.  249. 

No.  297.    A  review  of  "Kokoro,"  August  8,  1896,  p.  185. 

No.  298.  A  review  of  "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields," 
November  13,  1897,  p.  664. 

No.  299.  A  review  of  "Exotics  and  Retrospectives," 
January,  6,  1900,  p.  11. 

No.  300.  A  review  of  "Shadowings,"  January  5,  1901, 
p.  15. 

No.  301.  A  review  of  "A  Japanese  Miscellany,"  Decem- 
ber 21,  1901,  p.  833. 

No.  302.    A  review  of  "Kotto,"  January  17,  1903,  p.  77. 

No.  303.  A  review  of  "Kwaidan,"  September  17,  1904, 
p.  373. 

No.  304.  A  review  of  "The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way," 
March  31,  1906,  p.  389. 

No.  305.  A  review  of  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Laf- 
cadio Hearn,"  February  2,  1907,  p.  126. 

ATLANTIC  MONTHLY,  The 

No.  306.    A  review  of  "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan," 

and    "Out   of   the   East,"   by   Mrs.    M.    McN. 

Scott,  June,  1895,  vol.  75,  p.  830. 
No.  307.     A  review  of  "In   Ghostly   Japan"   by   Jukichi 

Inouye,  September,  1900,  vol.  86,  p.  399. 
No.  308.     "Lafcadio  Hearn:  The  Meeting  of  Three  Ways," 

by   Paul   Elmer   More,   February,    1903,   vol. 

91,  p.  204. 
No.  309.    A   review   of   "Kwaidan,"   June,   1904,   vol.   93, 

p.  857. 
No.  291.    "Lafcadio    Hearn:     the    Man,"    by    Nobushige 

Amenomori,  October,  1905,  vol.  96,  p.  510. 
No.  310.     "Lafcadio   Hearn,"    by    Ferris   Greenslet,   Feb- 
ruary, 1907,  vol.  99,  p.  261. 


Bibliography  403 


AUTHOR,  The 

No.  311.  Sketch  by  O.  P.  Cay  lor  (Reprinted  from  an 
article  in  the  Philadelphia  North  American), 
January  15,  1890,  vol.  2,  p.  51. 

BOOKBUYER,  THE 
No.  312.    "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  by  J.  S.  Tunison,  May,  1896, 

vol.  13,  p.  209. 
No.  313.    A  review  of   "Kokoro,"   by   Tozo   Takayanagi, 

May,  1896,  vol.  13,  p.  229. 
No.  314.    "Through  the  Medium  of  a  Temperament"  by 

John  Harrison  Wagner,  June,  1898,  vol.  16, 

p.  437. 
No.  315.    A  review  of  "Kotto,"  December,  1902,  vol.  25, 

p.  416. 

BOOKMAN,  The 

No.  316.    A  review  of  "Shadowings,"  by  F.  T.  C.,  Feb- 
ruary, 1901,  vol.  12,  p.  582. 
No.  317.    A  review  of  "Kwaidan,"  November,  1904,  vol. 

.   20,  p.  159. 

No.  318.  "The  Late  Lafcadio  Hearn,"  November,  1904, 
vol.  20,  p.  190. 

BUCKLEY,  EDMUND 

No.  292.  The  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  a  review 
of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Interpretation," 
January,  1905,  vol.  10,  p.  545. 

CAYLOR,  O.  P. 
No.  311.    The  Author,  January  15,  1890,  vol.  2,  p.  61. 

CHAUTAUQUAN,  The 

No.  319.  Short  Sketch  of  Hearn,  and  reprints  "Frag- 
ment," "Jui-roku-zakura,"  "Riki-Baka,"  "Yuki- 
Onna,"  "The  Screen  Maiden,"  September, 
1905,  vol.  42,  p.  245. 


404  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

CHICAGO  EVENING  POST,  The 
No.  320.    "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  by  Francis  Hackett. 

COCKERILL,  COLONEL  JOHN  A. 

No.  321.  Current  Literature,  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  the  au- 
thor of  'Kokoro.'  "  (Reprinted  from  the  New 
York  Herald.)  June,  1896,  vol.  19,  p.  476. 

COLEMAN,  JB.,  CHARLES  W. 

No.  322.  Harper's  Monthly,  "The  Recent  Movement  in 
Southern  Literature,"  May,  1887,  vol.  74, 
p.  855. 

CRITIC,  The 

No.  323.  A  review  of  "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields," 
April  9,  1898,  vol.  29,  p.  248. 

No.  324.  "Mr.  Hearn's  Japanese  Shadowings,"  by  Adachi 
Kinnosuke,  January,  1901,  vol.  38,  p.  29. 

No.  325.  "Lafcadio  Hearn's  Funeral,"  by  Margaret  Emer- 
son, January,  1905,  vol.  46,  p.  34. 

No.  326.  A  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Interpre- 
tation," by  Wm.  Elliot  Griffis,  February,  1905, 
vol.  46,  p.  185. 

No.  327.  "Hearn's  Stories  of  Old  Japan,"  by  W.  E.  Grif- 
fis, March,  1906,  vol.  48,  p.  222. 

No.  328.  "Letters  of  a  Poet  to  a  Musician,"  by  Henry  B. 
Krehbiel,  April,  1906,  vol.  48,  p.  309. 

CURRENT  LITERATURE 

No.  321.  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  the  author  of  'Kokoro,'"  by 
Colonel  John  A.  Cockerill.  (Reprinted  from 
the  New  York  Herald.)  June,  1896,  vol.  19, 
p.  476. 

No.  329.  "A  Glimpse  of  Lafcadio  Hearn,"  October,  1899, 
vol.  26,  p.  310. 

No.  330.  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  a  Dreamer,"  by  Yone  Nogu- 
chi.  (Reprinted  from  the  National  Maga- 
zine.) June,  1905,  vol.  38,  p.  521. 

No.  331.  "The  Mystic  Dream  of  Lafcadio  Hearn,"  Janu- 
ary, 1907,  vol.  42,  p.  49. 


Bibliography  405 


DAYTON,  OHIO,  JOURNAL,  The 
No.  332.     Editorial    on    Lafcadio    Hearn,    September    30, 

1904. 
No.  333.     "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  by  J.  S.  Tunison,  December 

25,  1906. 

DIAL,  The 

No.  334.  A  review  of  "Exotics' and  Retrospectives,"  July 
16,  1899,  vol.  27,  p.  52. 

No.  335.  A  review  of  "Shadowings,"  January  1,  1901, 
vol.  30,  p.  19. 

No.  336.  A  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Interpreta- 
tion," by  Wm.  Elliot  Griffis,  December  1,  1904, 
vol.  36,  p.  368. 

No.  337.  A  review  of  "The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way," 
November  1,  1905,  vol.  39,  p.  276. 

No.  338.  "Self-Revelation  of  Lafcadio  Hearn,"  by  F.  W. 
Godkin,  December  16,  1906,  vol.  41,  p.  447. 

DUNBAR,  OLIVIA  HOWARD 

No.  339.  North  American  Review,  a  review  of  "The  Life 
and  Letters  of  Lafcadio  Hearn,"  February 
15,  1907,  vol.  184,  p.  417. 

EMERSON,  MARGARET 

No.  325.  The  Critic,  "Lafcadio  Hearn's  Funeral,"  Janu- 
ary, 1905,  vol.  46,  p.  34. 

EVENING  SUN,  The  New  York 

No.  340.  "A  Native's  Tribute  to  the  Dead  American  Poet 
of  Japan,"  November  11,  1904. 

EVENING  POST,  The  New  York 

No.  341.  A  review  of  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lafcadio 
Hearn,"  December  1,  1906. 

EVENING  TRANSCRIPT,  The  Boston 

No.  342.    A  review  of  "Chita,"  November  2,  1889. 


406  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

F.  T.  C. 

No.  316.  The  Bookman,  a  review  of  "Shadowings,"  Feb- 
ruary, 1901,  vol.  12,  p.  582. 

FORTNIGHTLY  REVIEW,  The 

No.  343.  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  a  Study  of  his  Personality 
and  Art,"  by  George  M.  Gould,  October- 
November,  1906,  vol.  86,  pp.  685,  881. 

GODKIN,  F.  W. 

No.  338.  The  Dial,  "Self-Revelation  of  Lafcadio  Hearn," 
December  16,  1906,  vol.  41,  p.  447. 

GOULD,  GEORGE  M. 

No.  343.  Putnam's  Monthly,  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  A  Study 
of  his  Personality  and  Art,"  October-Novem- 
ber, 1906,  vol.  1,  pp.  97,  156.  The  Same, 
Fortnightly  Review,  October-November,  1906, 
vol.  86,  pp.  685,  881. 

GREENSLET,  FERRIS 

No.  310.  Atlantic  Monthly,  "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  February, 
1907,  vol.  99,  p.  261. 

GRIFFIS,  WILLIAM  ELLIOT 
No.  336.     The  Dial,  a  review  of  "Japan:   an  Attempt  at 

Interpretation,"  December  1,  1904,  vol.  36,  p. 

368. 
No.  326.    The  Critic,  a  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at 

Interpretation,"  February,   1905,  vol.   46,   p. 

185. 
No.  327.    The   Critic,   "Hearn's    Stories   of   Old    Japan," 

March,  1906,  vol.  48,  p.  222. 

HACKETT,  FRANCIS 

No.  320.     Chicago  Evening  Post,  "Lafcadio  Hearn." 

HARPER'S  MONTHLY 

No.  322.  "The  Recent  Movement  in  Southern  Litera- 
ture," by  Charles  W.  Coleman,  Jr.,  May,  1887, 
vol.  74,  p.  855. 


Bibliography  407 


HUNEKER,  JAMES 

No.  344.  The  New  York  Times,  "Exotic  Lafcadio  Hearn: 
The  Life  and  Letters  of  a  Master  of  Nuance 
— Elizabeth  Bisland's  Sympathetic  Biogra- 
phy," December  1,  1906,  vol.  11,  p.  817. 

HUTSON,  CHARLES  WOODWARD 

No.  345.  Poet-Lore,  "The  English  of  Lafcadio  Hearn," 
Spring,  1905,  vol.  16,  p.  53. 

INDEPENDENT,  The 
No.  346.    A    review    of    "Gleanings    in    Buddha-Fields," 

November  24,  1898,  vol.  50,  p.  1508. 
No.  347.    "An    Interpreter   of   the   East"    (A    review   of 

"Japan:    an    Attempt    at    Interpretation"), 

October  27,  1904,  vol.  57,  p.  976. 
No.  348.    A  review  of  "The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way," 

December  21,  1905,  vol.  59,  p.  1478. 

INOUYE,  JUKICHI 

No.  307.  Atlantic  Monthly,  a  review  of  "In  Ghostly 
Japan,"  September,  1900,  vol.  86,  p.  399. 

INTERNATIONAL  STUDIO,  The 

No.  349.  A  review  of  "Stories  and  Sketches  of  Japan," 
1905,  vol.  25,  p.  XL. 

KENNARD,  NINA  H. 

No.  350.  Nineteenth  Century  and  After,  "Lafcadio 
Hearn,"  January,  1906,  vol.  59,  p.  135. 

KINNOSUKE,  ADACHI 

No.  324.  The  Critic,  "Mr.  Hearn's  Japanese  Shadow- 
ings,"  January,  1901,  vol.  38,  p.  29. 

KREHBIEL,  HENRY  E. 
No.  328.    The  Critic,  "Letters  of  a  Poet  to  a  Musician," 

April,  1906,  vol.  48,  p.  309. 
No,  351.    The  New  York  Tribune,  "Hearn  and  Folk-Lore 

Music." 


408  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

LITERARY  WORLD,  The 

No.  352.  A  review  of  "The  Crime  of  Sylvestre  Bonnard," 
February  15,  1890,  vol.  21,  p.  59. 

No.  353.  A  review  of  "One  of  Cleopatra's  Nights,"  Feb- 
ruary 14,  1891,  vol.  22,  p.  56. 

No.  354.  A  review  of  "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan," 
October  20,  1894,  vol.  25,  p.  347. 

No.  355.  A  review  of  "Out  of  the  East,"  April  20,  1895, 
vol.  26,  p.  123. 

No.  356.  A  review  of  "Kokoro,"  April  18,  1896,  vol.  27, 
p.  116. 

No.  357.  A  review  of  "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields," 
November  13,  1897,  vol.  28,  p.  389. 

No.  358.  A  review  of  "A  Japanese  Miscellany,"  Decem- 
ber 1,  1901,  vol.  32,  p.  207. 

LIVING  AGE,  The 

No.  359.  "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  by  Robert  Young,  March  23, 
1907,  vol.  252,  p.  760.  (Reprinted  from  the 
Speaker.) 

MATHER,  JR.,  F.  J. 

No.  360.  The  Nation,  "Lafcadio  Hearn  on  Style"  (edi- 
torial), December  6,  1906,  vol.  83,  p.  478. 

MESSENGER,  The 

No.  361.  "Mr.  Lafcadio  Hearn  on  the  Jesuit  Missions  in 
Japan,"  by  Herbert  Thurston,  S.  J.,  January, 
1906,  vol.  45,  p.  1. 

MORE,  PAUL  ELMER 

No.  308.  Atlantic  Monthly,  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  the  Meet- 
ing of  Three  Ways,"  February,  1903,  vol.  91, 
p.  204. 

NATION,  The 

No.  362.  A  review  of  "Gombo  Zhebes,"  April  23,  1885, 
vol.  40,  p.  349. 


Bibliography  409 


No.  363.  A  review  of  "Some  Chinese  Ghosts,"  May  26, 
1887,  vol.  44,  p.  456. 

No.  364.  A  review  of  "Youma,"  May  7,  1891,  vol.  52,  p. 
385. 

No.  365.    A  review  of  "Kokoro,"  July  9,  1896,  vol.  63,  p.  35. 

No.  366.  A  review  of  "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields,"  Feb- 
ruary 3,  1898,  vol.  66,  p.  97. 

No.  367.  A  review  of  "Shadowings,"  November  8,  1900, 
vol.  71,  p.  372. 

No.  368.  A  review  of  "A  Japanese  Miscellany,"  January 
9,  1902,  vol.  74,  p.  39. 

No.  369.  A  review  of  "Kotto,"  March  26,  1903,  vol.  76,  p. 
254. 

No.  370.  A  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Interpre- 
tation," December  8,  1904,  vol.  79,  p.  465. 

No.  371.  A  review  of  "Stories  and  Sketches  of  Japan," 
January  26,  1905,  vol.  80,  p.  68. 

No.  372.  A  review  of  "The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way," 
December  21,  1905,  vol.  81,  p.  510. 

No.  373.  A  review  of  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lafcadio 
Hearn,"  November  29,  1906,  vol.  83,  p.  464. 

No.  360.  "Lafcadio  Hearn  on  Style"  (editorial),  by  F.  J. 
Mather,  Jr.,  December  6,  1906,  vol.  83,  p.  478. 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY  AND  AFTER,  The 
No.  350.    "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  by  Nina  H.  Kennard,  Janu- 
ary, 1906,  vol.  59,  p.  135. 

NOGUCHI,  YONE 

No.  330.  Current  Literature,  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  a 
Dreamer."  (Reprinted  from  the  National 
Magazine.)  June,  1905,  vol.  38,  p.  521. 

NORTH  AMERICAN,  The 

No.  339.  A  review  of  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lafcadio 
Hearn,"  by  Olivia  Howard  Dunbar,  February 
15,  1907,  vol.  184,  p.  417. 


410  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

OUTLOOK,  The 
No.  374.    A    review    of    "Gleanings    in    Buddha-Fields," 

October  16,  1897,  vol.  57,  p.  435. 

No.  375.  A  review  of  "The  Romance  of  the  Milky  Way," 
November  9,  1906,  vol.  84,  p.  503. 

POET-LORE 

No.  345.  "The  English  of  Lafcadio  Hearn,"  by  Charles 
Woodward  Hutson,  Spring,  1905,  vol.  16,  p.  53. 

PUBLIC  OPINION 

No.  376.  A  review  of  "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields," 
November  25,  1897,  vol.  23,  p.  694. 

No.  377.  A  review  of  "Shadowings,"  October  18,  1900, 
vol.  29,  p.  504. 

No.  378.  A  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Interpreta- 
tion," October  27,  1904,  vol.  37,  p.  537. 

PUTNAM'S  MONTHLY 

No.  343.  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  A  Study  of  his  Personality 
and  Art,"  by  George  M.  Gould,  October- 
November,  1906,  vol.  I,  pp.  97,  156. 

SCOTT,  MBS.  M.  McN. 

No.  306.  Atlantic  Monthly,  a  review  of  "Glimpses  of 
Unfamiliar  Japan,"  and  "Out  of  the  East," 
June,  1895,  vol.  75,  p.  830. 

SHORE,  W.  TEIGNMOUTH 

No.  288.  Academy,  a  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at 
Interpretation,"  December  10,  1904,  vol.  67, 
p.  584. 

SPECTATOR,  The 
No.  379.    A  review  of  "Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan," 

November  17,  1894,  vol.  73,  p.  698. 

No.  380.  A  review  of  "Out  of  the  East,"  October  12, 
1895,  vol.  75,  p.  459. 


Bibliography  411 


No.  381.  A  review  of  "Kokoro,"  May  23,  1896,  vol.  76,  p. 
739. 

No.  382.  A  review  of  "Gleanings  in  Buddha-Fields," 
November  20,  1897,  vol.  79,  p.  736. 

No.  383.  A  review  of  "Japan:  an  Attempt  at  Interpre- 
tation," January  14,  1905,  vol.  94,  p.  54. 

TAKAYANAGI,  TOZO 

No.  313.     The  Book  Buyer,  a  review  of  "Kokoro,"  May, 
1896,  vol.  13,  p.  229. 

THURSTON,  S.  J.,  Herbert 

No.  361.  The  Messenger,  "Mr.  Lafcadio  Hearn  on  the 
Jesuit  Missions  in  Japan,"  January,  1906,  vol. 
45,  p.  1. 

TIMES-DEMOCRAT,  The  New  Orleans 
No.  384.     "A  Strange  Career,"  August  5,  1906. 
No.  385.    "Lafcadio  Hearn  and  His  Friends,"  August  20, 

1906. 
No.  386.     "Silken  Fetters,"  May  26,  1907. 

TIMES,  The  New  York 

No.  387.  A  review  of  "Two  Years  in  the  French  West 
Indies,"  September  1,  1890. 

No.  344.  "Exotic  Lafcadio  Hearn:  The  Life  and  Letters 
of  a  Master  of  Nuance — Elizabeth  Bisland's 
Sympathetic  Biography,"  by  James  Huneker, 
December  1,  1906,  vol.  11,  p.  817. 

TRIBUNE,  The  New  York 

No.  388.    A  review  of  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lafcadio 

Hearn,"  December  5,  1906. 

No.  351.  "Hearn  and  Folk-Lore  Music,"  by  H.  E.  Kreh- 
biel. 

TUNISON,  J.  S. 

No.  312.  The  Book  Buyer,  "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  May,  1896. 
vol.  13,  p.  209. 


412  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

No.  333.     The  Dayton  (Ohio)  Journal,  "Lafcadio  Hearn," 

December  25,  1906. 
WAGNER,  JOHN  HARRISON 

No.  314.     The  Book  Buyer,   "Through  the  Medium  of  a 

Temperament,"  June,  1898,  vol.  16,  p.  437. 
YOUNG,  ROBERT 

No.  359.     The  Living  Age,  "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  March  23, 
1907,  vol.  252,  p.  760. 


X 

FOREIGN   ARTICLES   AND   CRITICAL 
REVIEWS   UPON   HEARN 

(Nos.  389-398) 

DANISH 
NYA  PRESSEN 

No.  389.     "Ur  en  forfattares  lif,"  af  Konni  Zilliacus,  Feb- 
ruary 2,  1899. 

FRENCH 
BENTZON,  TH. 

No.  390.    Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  "Un  Peintre  du  Japon : 
Lafcadio  Hearn,"1  June  1,  1904,  vol.  21,  p.  556. 
CAHIERS  DE  LA  QUINZAINE 

No.  391.     "Impressions  sur  la  vie  japonaise,"  par  Felicien 
Challaye,  June,  1902,  3rd  Series,  17th  Cahier. 

CHALLAYE,  FELICIEN 
No.  391.     Cahiers  de  la  quinzaine,  "Impressions  sur  la  vie 

japonaise,"     June,     1902,     3rd     Series,     17th 

Cahier. 
No.  392.    Revue    de   Mttaphysique    et    de    Morale.      "Un 

Philosophe     japonisant,     Lafcadio     Hearn,"1 

1903,  vol.  11,  p.  338. 

iTranslations    by   M.    B.    Easton,    unpublished,    in    MSS.,    in    the 
possession  of  Dr.  Gould. 


Bibliography  413 


No.  393.  Revue  de  Paris,  "Lafcadio  Hearn  et  le  Japon,"1 
December  1,  1904,  vol.  6,  p.  655. 

REVUE  DES  DEUX  MONDES 

No.  390.  "Un  Peintre  du  Japon:  Lafcadio  Hearn,"1  par 
Th.  Bentzon,  June  1,  1904,  vol.  21,  p.  556. 

REVUE  DE  METAPHYSIQUE  ET  DE  MORALE 

No.  392.  "Un  Philosophe  japonisant,  Lafcadio  Hearn,"1 
par  Felicien  ChallayS,  1903,  vol.  11,  p.  338. 

REVUE  DE  PARIS 

No.  393.  "Lafcadio  Hearn  et  le  Japon,"1  par  Felicien 
Challaye,  December  1,  1904,  vol.  6,  p.  655. 

GERMAN 
BRANDT,  M.  VON 

No.  394.  Deutsche  Rundschau,  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  Volks- 
glaube  und  Volkssitte  in  Japan,"  October, 
1900,  vol.  105,  p.  68. 

DEUTSCHE  RUNDSCHAU 

No.  394.  "Lafcadio  Hearn:  Volksglaube  und  Volkssitte 
in  Japan,"  von  M.  von  Brandt,  October,  1900, 
vol.  105,  p.  68. 

HERZOG,  WILHELM 

No.  395.  Die  Nation,  a  review  of  "Kokoro,"1  January  6, 
1906,  vol.  23,  p.  217. 

HIRN,  PROFESSOR  YRJO 

No.  396.  Neue  Freie  Presse,  "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  March 
26,  1905,  vol.  31,  p.  14580. 

NATION,  Die 

No.  395.  A  review  of  "Kokoro,"1  von  Wilhelm  Herzog, 
January  6,  1906,  vol.  23,  p.  217. 

^Translations   by    M.    B.    Eastern,    unpublished,    in    MSS.,    in   the    pos- 
session of  Dr.  Gould. 


414  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 

NEUE  FREIE  PRESSE 

No.  396.     "Lafcadio   Hearn,"   von   Professor   Yrjo   Him, 

March  26,  1905,  vol.  31,  p.  14580. 

• 

WAGE,  Die 

No.  397.  "Ein  englischer  Japaner,"  von  Th.  Bentzon. 
(Deutsche  von  Leo  Fried.)  A  condensation 
of  Mme.  Bentzon's  article  in  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes.  October  22-29,  1904,  Year  7,  Nr. 
43,  44,  pp.  987,  1001. 

SWEDISH 
HIRN,  MRS.  KARIN 
No.  398.    Ord  od  Bild,  1905. 

ORD  OD  BILD 
No.  398.    Mrs.  Karin  Him,  1905. 


XI 

SUPPLEMENTAL    LIST 
(Nos.  399-424) 

No.  399.  The  Last  of  the  New  Orleans  Fencing  Masters, 
Southern  Bivouac,  Louisville,  Ky.,  New  Series,  vol.  2,  Nov., 
1886. 

Speaks  of  the  Story  of  Jean  Louis,  from  Vigeant's  Un 
Maitre  d'armes  sous  la  restauration,  and  tells  the  tale  of 
Don  Jose  Llulla.  Six  double  column,  Svo.  pages,  size  and 
style  of  Atlantic  Monthly. 

No.  400.  The  Legend  of  Skobeleff.  Looks  like  an  edi- 
torial in  T.-D.1  (No  date,  etc.) 

No.  401.  A  Voudoo  Dance.  In  style  of  T.-D.  and  of 
Hearn;  unsigned,  undated,  was  evidently  in  T.-D. 

irThe  New  Orleans  Times-Democrat. 


Bibliography  415 


No.  402.  The  Future  of  Prance  in  the  Orient.  Editorial, 
doubtless  in  T.-D.,  undated. 

No.  403.  Pierre  Loti.  Translation  by  Hearn.  "From  the 
Original  Manuscript,"  signed  by  "Pierre  Loti"  and  "Trans- 
lated by  Lafcadio  Hearn."  Subheading:  "Fragments  from 
my  Diary."  Undated.  Probably  in  T.-D. 

No.  404.  Death  of  the  Great  Danseuse  of  the  Century. 
Unsigned  and  undated.  Not  in  type  of  editorial,  but  of 
contributed  matter  in  T.-D.  Probably  by  Hearn. 

No.  405.  The  First  Muezzin.  With  Arabic  Sub-title, 
under  which  is  "Bilal,"  and  15-line  poetic  excerpt  from 
Edwin  Arnold.  Contains  a  musical  setting  of  Prayer  by 
Villoteau,  Description  de  1'Egypte:  Vol.  XIV.  Probably  in 
T.-D.  Without  date,  etc. 

No.  406.  Dorodom  the  Last.  Editorial,  probably  in  T.-D. 
Undated. 

No.  407.  The  Naval  Engagements  of  the  Future.  Trans- 
lation from  Le  Figaro. 

No.  408.  Cable  and  the  Negroes.  Editorial,  probably  in 
T.-D.  and  by  Hearn.  No  date. 

No.  409.  The  Most  Original  of  Modern  Novelists  (Loti). 
Editorial,  probably  in  T.-D.  Undated. 

No.  410.  Heroic  Deeds  at  Sea.  Editorial  in  T.-D.  Un- 
dated. 

No.  411.     Study  and  Play.    Editorial  in  T.-D.    Undated. 

No.  412.  Arabian  Women.  Article  contributed  probably 
to  T.-D.  Undated. 

No.  413.  The  Roar  of  a  Great  City.  Editorial  contributed 
probably  to  T.-D.  Undated. 

No.  414.  Some  Fossil  Anthropology.  Editorial  probably 
by  Hearn,  and  probably  in  T.-D.  Undated. 

No.  415.  A  Word  for  the  Tramps.  Editorial  possibly  by 
Hearn,  and  probably  in  T.-D. 

No.  416.  Torn  Letters.  Signed  original  story  in  T.-D. 
Undated.  Later  enlarged  and  published  as  "Chita." 


416  Concerning  Lafcadio  Hearn 


No.  417.  Death  and  Resurrection  in  the  Soudan.  Edi- 
torial, probably  in  T.-D.  Undated. 

No.  418.  A  Memory  of  Two  Fannies  (Fanny  Elssler,  and 
Fanny  Cerrito).  Editorial,  probably  in  T.-D.  Undated. 

No.  419.     Shapira.    Editorial,  probably  in  T.-D.    Undated. 

No.  420.  To  the  Fountain  of  Youth.  Original,  signed 
contribution:  T.-D.,  May  24,  1885. 

No.  421.  The  Creole  Doctor.  Some  Curiosities  of  Medi- 
cine in  Louisiana.  From  an  Occasional  Correspondent  of 
The  Tribune,  New  Orleans,  Dec.  28th.  Probably  in  New 
York  Tribune.  Undated.  Signed  Contribution. 

No.  422.  A  Story  of  Hands.  The  Hand  and  its  Gestures. 
Translation,  Eugene  Mouton,  "From  advance  sheets."  Un- 
dated. 

No.  423.  The  Legend  of  the  Tea-Plant.  Original  contri- 
bution, probably  to  the  T.-D.  Undated.  Published  later  in 
"Some  Chinese  Ghosts,"  1887. 

No.  424.  Academical  Triumphs.  Editorial,  probably  by 
Hearn,  T.-D..  Dec.  20,  1885. 


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